Task Manager, best free A.V..........

[BellaUSA]

About Task Manager : should I be doing some 'clean-up' there ? There's certainly a lot of items running there.

Ok, some hate Windows Defender, what IS a good free Av. ? Should we just try one after another till we find the one most suitable for our particular O.S. ?

Thanks all, for the advice/help/all this while   

[SuperDave]

I run WD on my Windows 8.1 and MicroSoft Security Essentials on all my other computer and I find they are up to the task. There's very little virus floating around these. Most of the malware usually zip right by the AV. As for the task Manager, I've never heard of anyone trying to clean it. Those are all process that are running on your computer. Unless you're having problems, you should leave them alone.

[patio]

My recommendation would be StartupCPL from Mike Lin...it lets you manage which apps load on startup and decrease your overhead...
Do Not disable anything that you don't know what it is...