[coopns]

Obviously, I am still learning the Mac way....

On the PC...Ctrl...Alt...Del...can see all the processes running. Is there a similar feature with the Mac and also are there processes running that shouldn't be running, a la the PC? (blah.exe) I know specific processes that do need to be running.

Also, are there programs that auto load on startup that I may not want to be running, again on the PC there are a number of obnoxious programs that run automatically...W Media Player, Real Player, Limewire.

[TETENAL]

You can view all processes with Activity Monitor (control-click and choose Open in new Window to reveal in Finder). Many processes you see in Activity Monitor are required system processes. You can also force quit GUI applications by holding down ⌥⌘⎋ (option-command-escape). This might be somewhat equivalent to the processes window in Windows.

Applications that are autolaunched at login time you can find in System Preferences->Accounts->Login Items.

Real Player and Windows Media Player don't load anything at startup. Real Player in particular is a very good media player on Mac.