Shutting down programs

XP Home.

What do you use to close running programs before installing other programs or chkdsk, and defrag?

I used "end it all" with W98, will it still work with XP?

Also, I have found nothing about what files (temp, etc.) to delete before running defrag and Ghost. Anything different from W98?

All help appreciated, thanks.

You'll probably find it unnecessary to shut down any background running processes with XP when you want to defrag. XP handles resources and memory much better than 98.