PC or MAC?
I would recommend, if it is a PC, that you look down. The lower right corner, next to the clock, to be more precise. See all those 'craplets' down there? Most laptop vendors put all kinds of trialware, watered down freebies, and various junk they thought was worth crapping onto your PC there. It all takes up memory so taking time to see what each is, and uninstalling the junk, will make your machine faster and more responsive.

You need running in the SYSTRAY:
Antivirus
Firewall
(maybe) Volume control
Wireless connection software
(maybe) spyware control (if AV software doesn't have it and some don't).

With the exception of some utilities (like the Safely-Remove-Hardware icon to undock flashdrives) not much else is needed down there. But look at how much is probably there...

If using the AV software that came with the PC, it is probably trialware and will expire and so will the protection, so be sure you are using full software. And I always recommend a good software firewall (no not Windows Firewall.) The PC ceases to be fun with the first Trojan so I always recommend the one-two punch- AV+Firewall.