"System Idle Process" is when your CPU isn't doing anything.

And the idle process is generally the biggest cpu consumer, because it use otherwise unused cycles to take care of the routine stuff that keeps your computer running.

I thought the "system idle process" is just what's left over when all the other CPU activity is subtracted from 100% - i.e. your CPU is really doing nothing. So it's really doing stuff then?

eta: from wikipedia:

In Windows NT-based operating systems, the System Idle Process is the system idle task: it tracks how much of the CPU's time is being utilized and issues the HLT instruction to cut the processor's power usage. The percentage of time spent in idle can be seen in the Windows Task Manager.

The process "runs" at a thread priority of 0, ensuring that everything else running on the system has a higher priority and will be able to preempt it.

So I guess it depends on how you look at it.

And the idle process is generally the biggest cpu consumer, because it use otherwise unused cycles to take care of the routine stuff that keeps your computer running.

Huh. Neat. I'm a big tech-ignoramus (well, as ignorant as one can be and still be a part of an online community) so I had no idea.

WINWORD isn't on the process list, but shows up on the CPU/memory area. Not sure why.

I'd understand the crawly speed if I had been working on a bunch of different applications for a while, but irritatingly, the machine is slow from the start of the day, after I just booted it up and try to open the microsoft outlook. Bah.

I'd understand the crawly speed if I had been working on a bunch of different applications for a while, but irritatingly, the machine is slow from the start of the day, after I just booted it up and try to open the microsoft outlook. Bah.

Do you have Word set as your email editor in Outlook?

I think it's entirely possible, if the virus-checker and Windows updates are being installed, that they're just taking more and more of the system's resources. I had an older computer at my previous job, and over the four or five years I was there, it became less and less functional.

I'm pretty sure the idle process actually does do stuff. It tracks how much of the CPU process is being utilized and tracks power usage. It is set to zero priority though, so that everything else prempts it.

Do you have Word set as your email editor in Outlook?

Yeap. Oh, that's probably why WORD shows up in the CPU/memory tab even though it's not in the process list.

Yeah, from that Wikipedia entry it sounds like "tracks power usage" includes powering down the CPU briefly (or reducing clock speed) in order to reduce power consumption when maximum CPU speed is not needed. (A CPU feature that started out in laptops but I think most all CPUs do that now.)

two printing options from gmail:

Thanks, le nubian.