CPU is through the roof! How can I fix this?

[luftherz]

I was checking task manager and there are so many processes going on all at
one time either system or user processes. There are way too many. How do I
know which ones are generally safe to close and which ones aren't?

The memory is being eaten up by processes I'm not even using...how do I fix
this or is this just another "specialty" of vista?

 

[David]

How much memory to you have installed, and how much is being used?

I haven't disabled any services and am using less than 40% of 2 GB.

 

[f/fgeorge]

I was checking task manager and there are so many processes going on all at
one time either system or user processes. There are way too many. How do I
know which ones are generally safe to close and which ones aren't?

The memory is being eaten up by processes I'm not even using...how do I fix
this or is this just another "specialty" of vista?

First of all STOP looking at free memory in Vista! MS thinks free
memory is wasted memory so will use almost all of it for its own
purposes. It wil lthen release it as needed for the different programs
you run. Second upgrade to 2 gig of memory if you have not already.