What is using all my CPU time

[richierein]

There are times when the graph shows that a considerable amount of CPU time is being consumed yet the section below occasionally does not back that up showing just a few programs using 1% to 3% of the time.  Where is the remainder of the time being used?

[Jeremy Collake]

Most likely it is your security software, as that is not listed. However, there are other possibilities, such as system services. It is recommended you use the Windows Resource Monitor of Vista and above, or Task Manager in XP and below, to check to see what exactly is consuming those resources. First and foremost, Process Lasso is an automation and optimization utility. Since certain security software now has extremely sensitive and annoying 'tamper detection' that 'goes off' every time you look at the process, some security processes are ignored in v5.1. I've been speaking with Symantec and other corporations and have new methods coming to show their processes once again. Before, simply listing their processes would generate thousands of redundant, duplicate tamper detection events in certain security software.