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Bad software happens, despite the substantial efforts of Microsoft and other software developers around the world. PCs freeze up with annoying frequency, sometimes due to a corrupted program file and sometimes due to poor software design. Either way, you have to find the software scofflaw before you can take it out of circulation, and that entails examining all the programs running on your PC.

Just how many programs are running on your PC? The number may surprise you. To find out, hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete once--and only once--to see a list of all programs currently active (and taking up CPU cycles).

You'll probably find a few programs running that you didn't know about. Mice, keyboards, and other PC devices often place small utility programs in your StartUp folder during installation, and many application programs do the same. You probably neither want nor need these programs, but they load at start-up just the same. Often--but not always--each utility is accompanied by a new icon in the system tray in the lower-right corner of your screen.

Identifying the program responsible for causing system crashes involves working by a process of elimination: Disable a running program via Ctrl-Alt-Delete, reboot your system, and see whether the crashes stop. If they continue, enable the program you disabled previously, disable the next one, reboot, and see whether the crashes stop this time. Fortunately, Windows 98 and Windows Me provide the System Configuration Utility to speed up this process.