[Oxidopamine]

For those that use Windows 7, their CPU usage can mysteriously be quite high up to 100% and was running a bit slow. Even when your computer is idle, there are quite a few background processes running and sometimes they can chew up your CPU. For me, I found that MS Word 2010 (trial version downloaded from Microsoft) made my CPU sky-rocket to 100%. Interestingly, I was using only 1 MS Word document, however, the Resource Manager* showed I was running 3 different winword.exe files. Two of them each took up 49-50%, while the last one took 0%.

To figure this out, I closed the current Word document and the winword.exe that used 0% was removed but the other two weren't. After waiting a couple of minutes, the CPU was still at 100%, so I closed the two winword.exe. Lo and behold, my CPU dropped to a healthy 9%. This may be because I'm using a trial version and there's junk packed into it.

If you find that your CPU usage is at 100%, it's only a concern if your computer is also running slow or lagging. Sometimes, the CPU will be at 100% but if you add up the amount each listed process takes, the sum is not even close to 100. In that case, if it's lagging, run an anti-virus program, generate and analyze HJT logs, defrag and even start up in safe mode. Do NOT run a registry cleaner! They can help but they can also be a nightmare and cause much worse problems. I would only suggest doing that if you know your way around computers like the back of your hand, otherwise simple programs may not run or your computer itself won't function properly.

Another possible solution is to check your drive partitions. I've seen a few times where a large program is loaded in a drive that isn't in use anywhere else. In other words, it was sitting there chewing up space. Usually this happens when installing a program and the path is somewhere you don't want, a nasty malware or junk programs that are pre-installed when you buy a new computer (I had a bunch of pre-installed junk programs on my new laptop I immediately got rid of).

Last, a common solution I've read on other forums is that Windows Media Player can make your computer run slow. Generally, this is due to the library location of music, video, photos, etc... . As a general rule of thumb, the closer they are to the C:/ (or whatever you name your main drive), the longer it will take to load since it has to create new paths along the way. In other words, if you have videos, photos or movies on your desktop, either delete them or change the library location to somewhere farther away from the C:/, ideally as C:/Users/Name/Music. Try to not put the files too far in because you'll likely have the same problem and definitely don't put them in the System32 folder or one of its directories.

* Resource Manager can be accessed by going to Start and type "perfmon /res" without the quotes. Alternatively, a less comprehensive overview can be given from Task Manager accessed by CTRL + ALT + DEL then go to the Processes tab. Keep in mind, your CPU will increase a bit the moment you run either of these but not by much, only about 4-8% and shouldn't lag. If they freeze, then it's another story.

I'm new to 7 so I'm still learning. There's a very good program called autorun that might help. I'm running at 8% right now and I have several progs open.