When I go into my task manager, why are there so many processes of my browser running at the same time, even though I only have one or two open? Happens with whichever browser I use. Seems like that's using excess memory. Is there a way to stop it? Or do I want to stop it?
Stopping any process can have a negative affect depending what it is.
Your question was sort of answered, but I can word it differently.
Background processes are required for a program to run, so sometimes the processes you show in the Task Manager are required supplements to that program even though you only have one instance of the program open.
Don't know what Browser you normally use, but if you looked at the processes for Google Chrome you would be really shocked.
Firefox usually has at least 5 running.
You have probably seen quite a few instances of svchost also.
These are mandatory for the Windows and programs functions, although some of the information as to what they are doing can be corrupted and cause issue's like slowing a computer down.
You can actually see what each of those are handling if you want.
The easiest way is to a program like Process Explorer
Process Explorer - Windows Sysinternals
Say for example you had a screwed up Norton Antivirus and it was using 100% of your RAM, but you had already uninstalled Norton. (seen this a lot with Norton products)
One thing the Process Explorer can do is stop those damaged instances from loading in the svchost at all even though they are actually still in the computer.
All that said, it's pretty much useless to the average computer user because they have no idea what any of it means anyway.
Fortunately we can do about anything we want in the task manager as far as closing programs or services just to see what happens and a reboot will load it all again.
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