Hit the alt, ctrl, and the delete button all at the same time and another
menu pops up and you should hit end task on each item on the menu except
explorer and systray. You will have to do this separately for each item
until they are all gone. This will stop all the programs running in the
background. Then you should be able to run your defrag. Joseph Rydzy
-----

I cannot run defrag on my C-drive.  Says too many things running in
background.  I don't know what this means or how to get rid of unnecessary
start-up items.  Can you help me?

      "Hold No Punches.." Rode brings you great shareware/freeware
        programs with his honest opinions in this weekly column.
                       http://freepctech.com/rode