Why does Intel Wireless require so many active processes?

So I'm still configuring and tweaking my new Clevo M570RU and I'm trying to minimize the amount of regular processes I have running upon bootup.

Look how much memory Intel Wireless is constantly taking up.

iFrmewrk.exe - Intel PRO/Wireless Framework (avg 16,500 K)
Dot1XCFG.exe - Intel PRO/Wireless Network Connection Software (avg 14,300 K)
ZCfgSvc.exe - Intel Zero Config MFC Application for Wireless Networks (avg 15,500 K)
EvtEng.exe - Offers additional support to your Intel wireless LAN hardware (avg 12,700 K)
S24EvMon.exe - Intel's wireless driver component (avg 12,100 K)
RegSrvc.exe - Process which is installed alongside the Intel ProSet range of network communications products. (avg 3000 K)

I mean jeez, I'm better off keeping it on the hardline for all my intense gaming just to save memory!

Edit: It seems that those processes are running regardless of if I have wireless on or off! I toggled off WLAN and the processes didn't go away. What's the deal?

 

There are a number of processes spawned by the utility, but they can be turned off.

If you are using Windows Vista, set the Windows utility as the default wireless manager, and uninstall the Wireless manager (Vista had the driver installed by default without needing an Intel installation)
If you are running Windows XP, set the Windows utility as the default wireless manager, and go to msconfig and disable the Intel software from starting up.

Unless you are managing hidden networks in XP, you can safely turn the software off.

 

To configure Windows as the default wireless manager I am told to start the "wireless zero configuration service." The last word in that statement scares me a bit.

Would you recommend switching from the Intel utility to WZC? Would I even reduce the memory usage by a significant amount?

I could always just manually kill the processes when I'm doing some system-demanding intense gaming if need be.

 

MS Zero config will greatly reduce your over head. It is easy to activate, listed under services. I thick the majority of users use MSZero over Intel due to that one reason, overhead. SO YES I would recommend using MSZ.

 

The only down side using the Window Utility is that Windows likes to roam a lot over the Intel utility and I notice that if the signal isn't very strong or if there are a lot of Wireless networks nearby you'll get a lot of disconnects.

 

Yeah, I noticed that as well, using WZC I had many disconnects, especially in games, so I reinstalled the latest Intel ProSet software and the disconnect overall have been reduced but not eliminated.