Task List
Name

PROGRAM & MANUFACTURER

WHAT IT IS
AND WHAT YOU CAN DO

Qagent

QAgent.exe

(Intuit)

Quicken’s Background Downloading Agent.  Many of Intuit’s background downloading tasks can sometimes create serious conflicts, from illegal operations and invalid page faults which mention the MRTMNGR, MRTRATE, MRTPROC, or QAGENT programs, to the modem attempting to dial on boot-up, inability to print after going online, or the printer being activated when going online.  For all these reasons we strongly recommend disabling all Intuit background downloading tasks.

Recommendation : 
Disable from within Quicken/QuickBooks – choose the "Edit \ Options \ Internet Options" menu option.  Press Alt+Shift+4.  Click "Yes" on the window asking you if you want to disable the Quicken Background Download Manager. Click OK.  Close Quicken.  Restart your PC.

Qbdagent2001

Qbdagent2001.exe

(Intuit)

Intuit’s "QuickBooks 2001 Delivery Agent".  The purpose of this background program is to see if your QuickBooks software needs updating.  It does this by contacting Intuit whenever there is an Internet connection present.  We have serious issues with this :  if your connection to the Internet is by modem, it slows it a little initially. Worse, if it finds updates it downloads them without asking the user, thereby significantly slowing down the user’s connection without the end-user knowing why.  Next, when the user closes QuickBooks 2001, he is prompted with a question about updating QuickBooks – many users find this confusing as they did not realise QuickBooks had been downloading updates in the background.  Finally, as if the above problems weren’t enough, the QuickBooks 2001 Delivery Agent also conflicts with some programs (e.g. Atomic Authorizer).

Recommendation : 
You’ve guessed it :  Delete using Startup Manager, and also disable the Background Manager in the Internet Options within QuickBooks.  You can always do manual downloads through the QuickBooks menus.

Qbdagent2002

QBDAgent2002.exe

(Intuit)

Intuit’s "QuickBooks 2002 Delivery Agent".  See write-up for QBDAgent2001 above.

Recommendation : 
While in QuickBooks 2002, choose the "File \ QuickBooks…" menu option, then click on the "Options" button, then make sure Automatic Update is set to OFF.  Next, disable QBDAGENT2002 in Startup Manager.
Qdcsfs QDCSFS.exe

(Symantec)		 Norton CleanSweep Fast & Safe (the "QD" part stands for Quarterdeck as CleanSweep used to be a Quarterdeck product before being bought by Symantec).  Fast & Safe works in the background and automatically deletes temporary files, and files from software applications that you recently deleted/uninstalled.

Recommendation :
Unusually for a Symantec product, there are too many instances, for our liking, of this task causing problems at startup because of boot-up timing problems.  As a result we recommend you disable this from running automatically in the background and run it manually as and when you are performing housekeeping tasks.  You disable this task by opening "Fast & Safe Cleanup", choosing "Settings" and then the Schedule tab, and then unchecking "Run at system startup".
Qshelf2k QShelf2k.exe

(Microsoft ?)		 We believe this program to be part of Microsoft Bookshelf if you choose to install Bookshelf to your hard disk when you install Microsoft Office.

Recommendation :
None, as we are not yet certain of the role of this program.
Qttask QTTask.exe

(Apple)		 Apple’s QuickTime Tray Icon which enables you to start QuickTime from the System Tray (from version 5 onward).  Given the extremely simple functionality of this Tray icon, it is a totally unreasonable resource hog – it has been measured to use as much as 1.5Mb of memory at times.

Recommendation :
Disable it immediately, as follows – Start QuickTime through "Start \ Programs", choose the "Edit \ Preferences" menu option, select "QuickTime Preferences" from the right-hand side menu, uncheck the box next to QuickTime System Tray icon.  In version 6, however, this is done differently : double-click on the QuickTime icon in the Control Panel to bring up the QuickTime Settings panel, choose Browser Plug-in in the drop-down at the top, and then uncheck QuickTime System Tray icon.  Next, disable or delete it with Starter if it still shows in Starter.  You can always start QuickTime through "Start \ Programs" or through double-clicking on a quicktime file.
Quickdcf QuickDCF.exe

(??)		 Exif Launcher System Tray application.  EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format.  It is the de-facto standard for modern digital cameras for the storage and interchange of image files using JPEG compression.  As of December 2002 all new digital cameras now use the EXIF format.  The EXIF format is part of the DCF standard (Digital Content Format) created to standardise interoperability between imaging devices.  The Exif Launcher, also sometimes called the FinePix Viewer, sits in the System Tray and enables you to transfer images between your digital camera and your PC.  This application is used mainly by Fuji’s FinePix line of digital cameras.

Recommendation :
Down to user preference.  If you take a lot of pictures then it is convenient to be able to start the application from the System Tray, otherwise you may want to keep your System Tray to the bare minimum, and so disable QUICKDCF with Startup Manager and always start it via "Start \ Programs".
Qwdlls QWDLLs.exe

(Intuit)		 Quicken’s quick launch utility which loads Quicken DLLs at startup so that Quicken can start quicker whenever you invoke it. Just like its Microsoft cousin, Find Fast, this program is a total waste of time and simply takes up resources.

Recommendation :
Disable using Starter (do not delete, just in case).