Is there a helper application that can be run before playing BF2 or any other games that will shut down all extraneous background tasks at once, so you don't have to go and click through every single one to end it manually?
the BF2142 Manual wrote:
Background Tasks
In some cases programs that are running on your system can monopolize resources that the game needs in order to install, load, and run properly. Not all of these programs are immediately visible. There are a number of programs, called “background tasks,” that are always running on your system.
Important Note: While shutting down background tasks will optimize your system for running Battlefield 2142, these background tasks’ features will be unavailable once shut down. Be sure to re-enable background tasks after playing Battlefield 2142 by restarting your computer.
If your system is running anti-virus or crash guard programs you will need to close or disable them to run Battlefield 2142. To do this, find the icon for the program on the Windows Taskbar and then right-click the icon and select “close,” “disable,” or the relevant option. Please note that these programs will be reactivated the next time you restart your computer. Once anti-virus and crash guard programs have been disabled, you should end all unnecessary general background tasks.
To view and close background tasks (Windows XP):
1. Hold down ctrl and alt and then tap delete. Select the Windows Task Manager.
2. Click the Processes tab. This tab displays a list of all background tasks running on your system.
3. Click the User Name column heading. This sorts all the processes together by user name.
4. Select an item with a user name, but DO NOT select one from the SYSTEM, LOCAL SERVICE, or NETWORK SERVICE groups. Also, DO NOT select the explorer.exe or taskmgr.exe items.
5. Click END PROCESS. You may receive a warning message, if so click YES. The selected item disappears from the list.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until only explorer.exe and taskmgr.exe remain in the user name group.