Windows 7 upgrade: CPU usage stupidly high

A clean install would have been better than an upgrade. TBH, I can't recall ever doing an upgrade.

...is that the only possible solution?

maybe you have spy ware.

Then why would the idle CPU usage with vista be so much lower? idle with vista was like 1%. unless windows 7 installed spyware, which it definitely didnt, i dont think that's the problem.

I blame the upgrade as well. It's something I would never do or recommend.

dude you upgraded right, STUPID MOVE DOOD!
do a clean slate install, make some back up files, if your like me and all your installers for everything are somewhere on your hardrive put them onto and exteranl or something, and in theroy you should be running at 2% idle, my system runs at 1% on the first core the rest somehow are on -1%

You need to open up task manager, go to processes, hit cpu so it arranges processes by cpu usage, then find out what is eating up those cpu cycles. Try killing the process and see if you idle at 1 or so percent usage.

i would like to point out that the new firefox is a cpu whore