I recently got this jqs.exe in my task manager in Windows XP and found a way to disable it. Please read on.
If you open the Windows Task Manager (by pressing CTRL ALT DEL) you might notice
the process jqs.exe that is running with a low priority. Jqs.exe uses about 1.5
Megabytes of computer memory and 2 Megabytes of virtual memory while running. It
also initiates I/O processes frequently if those columns are activated in the
Task Manager.
Experienced computer users might guess that the process is related to Java
and that is the case indeed. Jqs.exe is the Java Quick Starter which was
designed to improve the startup time of Java applets and applications by
prefetching Java Runtime Environment files frequently into memory. That’s mainly
interesting for users who work with Java on a day to day basis. Everyone else
might be better of disabling the Java Quick Starter. Think of a user who
encounters one Java applet per month (or week), would it make sense to run the
process all the time because of those few instances where it might start the
application or applet faster?
Jqs.exe is definitely querying the Windows Registry for instance. The
performance increase might not be huge but you will free up some computer memory
and some I/O processes on the computer system.
How to disable JQS.exe
Now, if you want to disable the Java Quick Starter process you can do that in
the Windows Control Panel. You find a Java entry there which will open the Java
Control Panel.
A click on Advanced and the selection of Miscellaneous will display the
activated Java Quick Starter entry. Uncheck the box to disable the process. This
will be visible in the Windows Task Manager immediately.
Source of information: http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/15/jqsexe/