Brian,

I agree that using Windows Desktop Cleanup can be useful. However, it will not affect bandwidth in any way whatsoever. It will improve overall computer processing which can help with all computer activities, including web surfing.

Also, I was responding to the recommendation to just move desktop icons. This is much less effective in terms of cleanup that is designed to improve performance. Using Windows Desktop Cleanup is not only more effective but safer. Just moving those icons will often result in error messages with the next boot, because now Windows does not know where they were moved to and will prompt the user for action.

And again, doing any sort of desktop cleanup is going to have a very, very minimal impact on internet efficiency. It should be done for other reasons, such as clutter, boot time slowdown, and overall improved efficiency (which can help with web performance, but really only a little).

The fact is that the startup programs you want to leave alone, do in fact affect bandwidth. However, depending on how many are installed and many other factors, the amount of bandwidth can be quite minimal or more substantial.

But it is desirable to monitor these processes as the real issue is that they are often installed surreptitiously as malware. They can and often do cause unexpected problems, slowdown computer and internet performance, and so forth. What do you think AdAware is doing? One of its main functions is to look at those programs and decide which ones truly don't belong.

rfinney