Yes. It does.
Programs that are running but not in use are running in the "background."
A system can be hacked by programs running in either the foreground or the background; it all depends on their stability and security preparedness.
RAM
yuhhhh
The "Programs" section these are the programs and or processes (depending on your operating system; In XP and 2K they have separate tabs) currently running on your computer. A lot of these run in the background and are required by your operating system and other software such as your firewall and anti-virus software.
No not necessarily. What takes a computer so long to shut down is the fact that it has to close all the background programs as well as any that are running in the forground. Most people (me included) have a lot of background programs that need to be shut down before the computer will turn off.
ram
Daemons are programs that run in the background and are usually not designed to have a graphical interface.
CPU
That place is 'random access memory' - or RAM.
If one is planning on using photographs that they have taken with a digital camera as background wallpaper for a Windows based computer system, computer programs such as Photo Explosion should do the job nicely.
The computer is always running when booted up because there are several programs that run in the background that are not seen by the user. The computer will shut down after a term of inactivity to a hibernation stage. This is to save energy within the computer.