8/27    My computer WinXP has a lot open but isn't actually DOING ANYTHING
        and yet explorer is running in the background at 50% of CPU and up
        (on a 1.6G processor) and i can hear my hard disk being accessed
        like mad.  Is there any software that can tell me what is going on?
        What files are being accessed?  What the hell explorere is acutally
        DOING?  ok thank(ia).
        \_ Try the utilities at http://sysinternals.com.  Process Explorer will
           tell you the CPU usage of various threads within the explorer.exe
           process.  Filemon will tell you who is causing all the disk
           activity.  --sky
        \_ Probably some virus or spyware.
        \_ search for filemon.
        \_ Press Ctrl-Shift-Escape and sort processes by CPU time.
           Click View -> Select columns and choose some I/O operations.
           \_ ctrl-alt-delete shows task manager in xp, and is easier to type.
              but still, that doesn't show in any degree of detail what's
              actually going on.
              \_ Have you tried View -> Select columns yet?