Ever had that feeling that something’s just not quite right with your system? If you were a Star Wars Jedi Knight, you might feel maybe a twinge in ‘The Force’ when you logged onto your computer, sufficient to alert you that a malware process or processes unknown may be running.

However, us non-Jedis usually have to use anti-malware software to uncover worms and their associated processes squirming and slithering around our systems. One way of checking is to fire up the Windows Task Manager, write down all the process names currently loaded, and then trawl through the Internet eliminating them one by one. Sound too much like hard work? It is, but there are programs out there that can do a lot of the legwork for you.

One such package is Security Task Manager (STM) from Neuber Software. The trial version is free and quickly displays all the Windows and other processes running on your system. A quick look can show you all the software updaters, ActiveX ‘helper’ programs and other junk that was probably set up to run by default when you installed the programs many moons ago.

In fact over 60% of the processes you see on this screenshot of a test system don’t need to be running. OK, knocking them all out might not save a massive amount of CPU-time, but at least it makes sure they don’t pop up at inconvenient times. I got hold of a fully licensed copy, which also lets you see all the services and drivers loaded on your system as well. STM lets you remove or quarantine problem processes or even ask Google.com about them.

A single user license costs $29 or around £15 if you convert. Is it worth it? I’d say yes and I’ll be using it a lot over the coming months.

The STM screenshots were made using another free utility, Wisdom Software’s ScreenHunter. This is a neat program which can be used to screenshot user-defined areas of your screen in real time or using a timer. The paid for upgrade looks to have many more useful functions.