I've been noticing some lagging going on with my PC... Not knowing shit about PC's I decide to look at my task manager and then processes.. Turns out I have 69 different things running on my PC.

Is this normal? If not any idea how to elimintate the useless ones (also how to know which ones are useless, etc)

The most important part is how much CPU usage and memory usage the programs are using (you can also see that in Task Manager).

Something you can do for starters is remove a bunch of non-essentials from your startup by running MSConfig (Start -> Run -> type 'msconfig') and going to the startup tab. If you don't check this out every few weeks or so, you probably have like a dozen non-essential programs loading up there.

A lot of the processes running will have weird names - google them if you're curious.

Download, update, and scan using anti-spyware programs like Spybot Search and Destroy, and Lavasoft's Ad-aware to remove some crap from your computer.

Also download CCleaner to cleanup temp files, junk files, and fix registry errors.

These are all pretty standard maintainence stuff. All that along with DiskScan, Disk Defragmenter (those two come standard with every PC), and some Anti-virus program.

A quick note about the msconfig program- MicroSoft Configuration is what it stand for.

Anything in the startup tab you uncheck will not load on startup.
After you use it, you will be prompted to restart the computer, do so.

This does not remove the program from the computer, or prevent it from running if you start it, it just prevents it from loading automatically when you start the computer.

All the services like quicktime task (qttask.exe) and Java update scheduler (jusched) can be safely removed without any harm. The iPod labeled services are not required to be running all the time for the iTunes software to work.

There are a few items in there that you will need to have running, particularly the antivirus programs "Real Time Protection" is started this way. It does not hurt your computer to start it without these items started, but it is recommended that you have your antivirus program fully enabled.

Instant messaging programs also think they need to be loaded on startup, but will start just fine if they are unchecked in msconfig.

As a general rule of thumb, WinXP should have less than 50 processes running after a restart. A fresh install without antivirus or printers installed can be under 40.

tl:dr version =
You have too much crap running on startup, turn it off.
Check for viruses too.

I'd go easy with CCleaner or anything else that removes keys from your registry, unless you back it up first.

Before it removes anything, it prompts you to backup registry.

You can also use a program like SpeedFan or CoreTemp to monitor the temps of your hardware. Lets you know if your Hware is running hot, and therefore throttling your system.

His recommendations kinda blow...