Know your process

You may have hit Ctrl-Alt-Del, took a peek at the Task Manager and noticed a Process List and wondered what the hell is all that. Simply this is a list of processes (tasks) that the system is currently running and knowing what they are used for can be very helpful in cleaning up your system. If there was only a place to get information on each one of the processes - Oh wait there is: Process Library

This is such a cool site and really lets you know what is running on your computer and whether its safe, can be stopped, and a whole bunch of other information.

(Check out the DLL search located on the same site)

Give this a try too:
Usage Monitor - This tool will let you monitor your processes beyond what is available in Windows Task Manager.