closing open/running programs

hi. im new to vista and dell laptop. previously used win98 and desktop. i
now need to install my hp all in one printer, etc. and need to close all open
programs running before installation. in win 98 i simply did this by
clicking start, run, msconfig, and closed everything but explorer and systray
to make sure my programs/software was not damaged during new installation of
printer software.

how do i do this in vista? I'm lost and in a hurry. my printer instructions
say "close all open programs before installation". please help asap.
thanks. mj

Don't go closing all the services!

All that has EVER meant was to close any programs that you are working on,
on your desktop, including the ones that you have minimised to your taskbar.

Some people, and instructions, say to disable anti-virus as well, while you
are installing software.
If you are using Norton, etc; I would

"mjkitty7" wrote:

> hi. im new to vista and dell laptop. previously used win98 and desktop. i
> now need to install my hp all in one printer, etc. and need to close all open
> programs running before installation. in win 98 i simply did this by
> clicking start, run, msconfig, and closed everything but explorer and systray
> to make sure my programs/software was not damaged during new installation of
> printer software.
>
> how do i do this in vista? I'm lost and in a hurry. my printer instructions
> say "close all open programs before installation". please help asap.
> thanks. mj

Hi mjkitty7,

What this actually means is that you should not have any applications open,
i.e. the taskbar should be clear except for the system tray (where the clock
is) and the quick launch toolbar (if you have it enabled). All programs that
start automatically should be left alone. In practice, it doesn't really
matter if you have programs open or not. This really only applied to older
machines and older operating systems. Generally, these machines had slower
processors and less memory and therefore fewer resources - in some cases
insufficient to install some drivers without closing non-essential programs.
With some printers, the driver is already built-in to Vista and will
automatically install when you connect it up to your computer. What model is
your printer? Mine is a HP PSC 1110 and the driver for this model is already
included in Vista so all I need to do is to connect it up. I have actually
connected my printer up when I had about a dozen other programs running
without any problems whatsoever.
Dwarf

"mjkitty7" wrote:

> hi. im new to vista and dell laptop. previously used win98 and desktop. i
> now need to install my hp all in one printer, etc. and need to close all open
> programs running before installation. in win 98 i simply did this by
> clicking start, run, msconfig, and closed everything but explorer and systray
> to make sure my programs/software was not damaged during new installation of
> printer software.
>
> how do i do this in vista? I'm lost and in a hurry. my printer instructions
> say "close all open programs before installation". please help asap.
> thanks. mj