It may be safe to say that the prominent cause of my computer problems is a variety of programs running in the background.  They not only use up resources, but I feel that they impede the "real" programs I try to run. When all else fails, I have to run these programs in Safe Mode. Newer systems such as XP may be able to deal with them easily, but my six-year old PC has been struggling. I suspect the two biggest culprits are my anti-virus program and an internet "accelerator" program I have.

Any thoughts or ideas from any of you on how to identify those background programs that do more harm than good and get them to suspend operations (or even delete them)?

Thanks for your help.

     Those programs have to start at some time and they usually start at startup.  You can use msconfig (type that in Run) to see some of the items that start at startup and disable the ones you don't want running.
     I have written a program that detects all of the programs that start at startup and suggests which ones you need and which ones you don't need.  It allows you to disable the ones that you don't want.  The program is called Speed Startup and is available at http://superwin.com/speedstartup.htm.