I purchased this asis i5 8gb laptop for d2r release. I am not very computer savvy / am pretty lazy.
I upgraded the ram to 2x 16gb sticks with the intention of running two clients smoothly.
With all my programs closed, I have ~200 processes running. They eat up between 5-6gb of ram. This is strange to me because the computer was designed to max out at 8gb.
Where are all these processes coming from/linked too.
How do I kill all processes that are hogging memory.
How do I determine what processes are just necessary for the system.
Also any references for info online would be helpful.

Pictures would help a lot, so we can see what is happening

Most laptops, Asus included, are super bloated with garbage software and background processes, on top of Windows' garbage background processes.
Imo just insntall a fresh Windows, install drivers, and then run something like the ChrisTitusTech debloater: https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil
Guide (you can ignore the latter half about microwin): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQAIYCT4f8Q