Windows 7: Spinning Blue Mouse Circle

Hi,

My shiny new windows 7 laptop arrived yesterday, and despite the odd hiccup all has been okay so far.

Today though, following the installation of Office 2010, Spotify & iTunes, the system keeps 'thinking' and showing the spinning blue circle/wheel by the mouse pointer every 10 seconds or so.

Windows is obviously doing something, but even when I close every app nothing changes... every 10 seconds or so the spinning circle appears for 5 or so seconds.

Either I have a problem or something is running excessively in the background, but what? I have to admit it's bugging me no end! no pun intended ;-)

Thanks in advance for your help, and I can provide further info if needed.