Thanks Bruce but shutting these processes down when I don't understand what they are doing appears a little risky to me. I was previously under the mistaken impression that if a person has programs closed and are not in the start menu they are not using up memory. I don't know about those that are on the Taskbar, WDYT?
I know a trader who has only Tradestation, her broker and Internet Explorer (I prefer Mozilla Firefox) on her trading machine. She doesn't even have any virus or spy software. This doesn't sound wise to me, WDYT? She does this because she claims that the more that you have running in the background the more memory it uses and slows down the automatic trade executions.
I would like to do the same plus my present broker requires Java and I like to run hotComm for room participation. Although I am not sure about no virus or other data mine protection. Regardless is it possible to have 2 hard drives or a partitioned hard drive with 1 operating system? I know that it is possible simply have 2 operating systems on one hard drive one with your trading set up and another with all the other programs you use because I have XP and XP Pro on my hard drive and on start up before I launch windows I am given a choice as to which one to use.
Some people have 2 computers but this is redundant and requires space that I don't have. It appears to me to be easier to segregate all the software not required for trading while you are trading than concerning yourself about all the little programs that are running in the background. The question is the best way to do this, WDYT?
TIA,
Murray