Process PID CPU Description Company Name
wmplayer.exe 5888 20.73 Windows Media Player Microsoft Corporation
procexp.exe 4736 19.87 Sysinternals Process Explorer Sysinternals
sidebar.exe 3376 16.41 Windows Sidebar Microsoft Corporation
System Idle Process 0 9.50
DPCs n/a 2.66 Deferred Procedure Calls
dwm.exe 560 7.78 Desktop Window Manager Microsoft Corporation
System 4 3.46
firefox.exe 5172 3.46 Firefox Mozilla Corporation
mfpmp.exe 6032 2.59 Media Foundation Protected Pipeline EXE Microsoft Corporation
G15NetSpeed.exe 2316 2.59
Interrupts n/a 3.99 Hardware Interrupts
svchost.exe 1036 0.86 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation
services.exe 648 0.86 Services and Controller app Microsoft Corporation
csrss.exe 572 0.86 Client Server Runtime Process Microsoft Corporation
WmiPrvSE.exe 6088 WMI Provider Host Microsoft Corporation
WinMail.exe 1228 Windows Mail Microsoft Corporation
winlogon.exe 620 Windows Logon Application Microsoft Corporation
wininit.exe 564 Windows Start-Up Application Microsoft Corporation
usnsvc.exe 2556 Messenger Sharing USN Journal Reader Service Microsoft Corporation
taskeng.exe 812 Task Scheduler Engine Microsoft Corporation
taskeng.exe 3016 Task Scheduler Engine Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 1020 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 1180 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 1340 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 820 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 868 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 1588 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 916 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 988 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 2212 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 2644 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 2704 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation
svchost.exe 2752 Host Process for Windows Services Microsoft Corporation
StarWindService.exe 2684 StarWind iSCSI Target (Alcohol Edition) Rocket Division Software
spoolsv.exe 1560 Spooler SubSystem App Microsoft Corporation
smss.exe 444 Windows Session Manager Microsoft Corporation
SLsvc.exe 1148 Microsoft Software Licensing Service Microsoft Corporation
sidebar.exe 5176 Windows Sidebar Microsoft Corporation
SetPoint.exe 808 Logitech SetPoint Event Manager (UNICODE) Logitech Inc.
SearchProtocolHost.exe 6084 Microsoft Windows Search Protocol Host Microsoft Corporation
SearchIndexer.exe 2812 Microsoft Windows Search Indexer Microsoft Corporation
SearchFilterHost.exe 492 Microsoft Windows Search Filter Host Microsoft Corporation
nod32kui.exe 1600 NOD32 Control Center GUI Eset
nod32krn.exe 2612 NOD32 Kernel Service Eset
msnmsgr.exe 152 Windows Live Messenger Microsoft Corporation
MOM.exe 2164 Catalyst Control Center: Monitoring program ATI Technologies Inc.
MDM.EXE 2400 Machine Debug Manager Microsoft Corporation
lsm.exe 668 Local Session Manager Service Microsoft Corporation
lsass.exe 660 Local Security Authority Process Microsoft Corporation
LCDMon.exe 804 Logitech LCD Manager Logitech Inc.
KHALMNPR.exe 3084 Logitech KHAL Main Process Logitech Inc.
ioloDMVSvc.exe 2280
explorer.exe 864 Windows Explorer Microsoft Corporation
ehtray.exe 488 Media Center Tray Applet Microsoft Corporation
ehmsas.exe 2376 Media Center Media Status Aggregator Service Microsoft Corporation
CTHELPER.EXE 1828 CtHelper Application Creative Technology Ltd
csrss.exe 512 Client Server Runtime Process Microsoft Corporation
CCC.exe 3224 Catalyst Control Centre: Host application ATI Technologies Inc.
audiodg.exe 1116 Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation Microsoft Corporation
Ati2evxx.exe 968 ATI External Event Utility EXE Module ATI Technologies Inc.
Ati2evxx.exe 1972 ATI External Event Utility EXE Module ATI Technologies Inc.
I can also confirm that even for videos of much lower resolution, “Media Foundation Protected Pipeline EXE” gets starten when I open them and uses 100% CPU at the beginning and around 10-20% CPU during playback. In addition, it takes almost 45 seconds before Media Player actually starts playing the video after opening it.
Video and audio playback seems to use much more resources in Vista, and you even get freezes and gaps in the audio.
On that very same PC, in XP, everything worked much faster.