I've been going crazy trying to keep my machine lean and mean for realtime trading because I do not have a really powerful CPU (Intel I7 4600M 2.90 Ghz, Quad Core, 16 GB memory). However, see attached....Look at these processes that keep on duplicating and appearing. Why is that happening ? Also, I can't shut down some of them like Discord. They keep popping up ! It's like the game "wack-a-mole"....I wack them down, and they reappear. Any solution to this ? I want to keep unwanted processes from becoming active during trading.
I don't think these processes are your problem. Note that for most of them the percent of CPU used is 0. Try to concentrate your efforts on processes that either use a lot of CPU or a lot of memory (add the memory column to the task list details).
While it does not specifically address your issue of being leaner at a particular hour, note that you can disable auto starting services by running "System Configuration"/msconfig.exe, and it's usually worth having a look there when trying to reduce bloat from your PC. Although be a bit careful in researching what you're disabling as you can make your PC quite nonfunctional by disabling essential services.
I'm not that technical but I can do things like remove a hard drive from a crashed computer and upload the contents to a new one. If you have a 16MB computer, I would suggest that you do not download or run any type of trading programs or scanners. Only use programs that are completely online until you can upgrade.
Check your browser extensions, they are normally the culprit of the issue. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/fix-high-cpu-usage-google-chrome-77171.html Anyway, if you check the CPU usage of those processes, they are not something to worry about.
You're looking for a problem that does not exist. Just because you see a boatload of processes running, does not mean you have a problem. Is your PC running slowly? Is it affecting your trading? If not, ignore it.
Windows should be re-installed, with a clean install at least once a year. A sad but true situation. I do a rebuild about every 9 months. Sounds like you have a general purpose machine and not a dedicated machine.
Not practical since I have 30+ applications with key codes, etc. that I have forgotten and re-installing these would be almost impossible. This is the same situation when attempting to upgrade to Windows 11...everything needs to be re-installed and re-configured. Next billionaire is the guy who creates a Windows transfer utility.