Vista - Why is Vista doing this??

I'm running:

Windows Update
Steam
MSN Messenger
Rivatuner
Windows Sidebar

and my PC is using 15% of my Core1 and 40% of my core2... as well as 33% of my RAM.

I'm running 52 processes /w 60% CPU usage and 39% physical memory.
does this seem normal for:

X2 3800+ AM2
2gb ddr2-667
HD3850 256MB Pci-e 16x

also when I install something it jumps to almost 100% everything used, same when playing most games...

?

Try Process Explorer - Windows Sysinternals: Documentation, downloads and additional resources

-solon fox

What I mean is it could be a million things, gadgets in the sidebar, antivirus, spyware, shadow copies... use a tool like Task Manager or Process Explorer to get some ideas about what is using up the CPU. Physical memory usage could be normal.

-solon fox

As solon fox mentioned it could be many things...Vista itself runs maintenance tasks, auto defragmentation, indexing and cleanup tasks plus more automatically and does this while it knows your not doing anything important and thats before loading antivirus, firewall software or a hundred other applications...

Gaming will allways use close to 100% of system resources since the massive amount of calculations required for graphical work within games is very system intesive and that will never change.

You can control most of the Vista options by checking out the Tutorial section but any 3rd party software you have installed you will have to check and modify for better performance yourself.

Steven

I only have ONE gadget... I don't have antivirus etc. and I don't have anything running in background, if someone could forward me to a list of processes/program/utlities i can disable to free up some performance I would love it. I heard there was a Vista tweak guide somewhere?

It just seems to me for what's running I shouldn't be using even quarter what I am... Half my CPU and RAM used just running simple processes? I think not.

I highly doubt my few tasks would cause this... and I'm only running 1 gadget (the cpu/mem viewer.) and I have nothing background (antivirus etc.) This is happening from straight idle pretty much. I also think my system should be able to install a game and multitask, there was a site for tweaking vista to run properly, anyone know it? I run XP and I use about 2% CPU and 2% RAM in Idle, hence why this is Bull ISH!

Ok, wow... I just installed all the Windows Updates and now my Core1 = 30, Core 2 = 82 , RAM = 40... heh wow, is it just me or is vista horrid? heh... anyone got any tweak suggestions?

Did you try solonfox's recommendation? You can also run the built in Resource Monitor to see whats sucking up your CPU.

The higher RAM usage is Super Fetch, you don't want to disable that.

They say Superfetch is bad for gaming?? is this true...

I haven't experienced any issues with Super Fetch and games. SF will release any RAM its using if another application/game requires more RAM. It also only loads data with the lowest I/O priority if the system is not under load so it won't interfere if you are using your PC.

Its only horrid if it doesn't do what you want it to do. If you are fighting it to get your tasks done, then that is a bad thing.

But, really while we know there could be a lot of threads running, or maybe only one that is sucking up the resources. In order to make a judgement about what to do about it. We first have to know what 'it' is. For all we know right now, it might not even be Vista per se. There could easily be an update program that you installed and supports another application that you aren't even running.

I'm forever pushing back the shovelware. How many times have I removed that Adobe Acrobat Helper? I need/want Acrobat, I don't need the "helper." The same goes for iTunes. Yes, I like iTunes, but their updates are forever shovelling that other junk on me. Sigh. So many guilty parties.

Can't know what's troubling you mate until you take a look at the processes that not only are running, but that appear to be using a lot.

-solon fox

As it was already said, you don't need to worry much about your RAM. My RAM usage is anywhere from 35%-50% on idle and I have 4GB, but never experience any slowdowns.

Now for the CPU usage, just open your task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete and click "Start Task Manager") and in your "Processes" tab, click the word CPU to sort the processes by its CPU usage. Once you've done that, please tell us which processes are at the top using a high percentage of your CPU, then we'll be able to assist you further.