New
#131
Try these steps please and tell me what you see:
0) Fire up task manager and sort by the (badly named) "CPU" column under the processes tab. Put the task manager window somewhere out of the way on your monitor. Exit all apps, all windows, so that the task manager is the only thing on your task bar and you're looking at your (non-animated) desktop.
1) Move the mouse around on the desktop without going over the TM window - what process is consuming processor time?
2) Now start an Explorer window and go into a folder with lotsa little files. Move the pointer around over the files so the blue highlight bar moves under the pointer. What process is eating processor time?
3) Close the explorer window and open a browser instance - IE or FF. Go to a busy page with lots of elements on it. Don't click anything, just move the mouse around within that window. What process is eating processor?
It just struck me (before writing this response) that you really shouldn't be seeing explorer.exe as being responsible unless you're moving your mouse over an explorer window.
Can you confirm what happens on your machine during the steps above?