And Dvorak's complaint about "System Idle Process" had a little bit more context. He was complaining that XP would become non-responsive while still being most

And Dvorak's complaint about "System Idle Process" had a little bit more context. He was complaining that XP would become non-responsive while still being mostly idle (something I remember well from that era too). He could definitely have done a much better job of expressing it though: IDLE-TIME PROCESS. Once in a while the system will go into an idle mode, requiring from five minutes to half an hour to unwind. It's weird, and I almost always have to reboot. When I hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete, I see that the System Idle Process is hogging all the resources and chewing up 95 percent of the processor's cycles. Doing what? Doing nothing? Once in a while, after you've clicked all over the screen trying to get the system to do something other than idle, all your clicks suddenly ignite and the screen goes crazy with activity. This is not right. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1304348,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1304348,00.asp