Every user is probably aware, to one degree or another, of the fact that programs run in his/her computer. But what are the effects of an installed program? what are the effects of a program running actively? Does having a program installed mean it takes CPU power or RAM space?

Let’s start from the beginning. When you power up your computer, it first loads a series of basic programs that comprise the Operating System. These are the programs that allow you to interact with the computer and control it, initiate new programs, etc. Next, there are a number of programs that are flagged to start when the computer boots up. The computer looks up that list and loads those programs in memory as part of the startup process. Logically, the longer the list (and the bigger the programs) the more time it takes for your computer to finish the startup process. Also the more RAM the computer will use and therefore the less it will have available if you need to start new programs like a word processor, a web browser, or an email application.

Now, the fact that a program is installed in a computer does not mean it takes CPU power or RAM space per se. The program needs to be invoked into action by either the computer from a preset list of programs as covered above, or by user intervention as in the example of the word processor. Up until then it will certainly take hard disk space (storage) but that’s it. When a program is started it will take RAM space, and depending on what is doing in real time, it will take more or less CPU power. Therefore it’s a basic maintenance task to check what programs run at startup and shave from that list any unneeded ones (especially if the computer is new or this maintenance routine has never been performed) for you’ll find a lot of times computer have unnecessary programs set to run at startup that don’t need to be and just eat RAM space and CPU power.

Generally speaking, a computer with only the needed programs running at any given time is a mean lean machine that operates faster.