I know its a bit geeky... but its slightly interesting..

Vista has a quite comprehensive performance console, which maps various stats like cpu/mem/disc/network usage.. it also has a "average" column.. which is showing me that MSN is the most consuming app when the machine is idle averaging out at 7% cpu usage... and 77mb of memory!

with that and folding running... folding is only getting 85% of my cpu on average... not good enough

/me goes to look to see if trillian is any better

Task manager tells me folding is using 99% CPU, with MSN logged in. Is it the same version of MSN? I'm only on a bog basic one.

Yes.. but thats only current usage.. folding will back-down if anything else requires the cpu.. msn tends just to spike which is why its not showing on yours.

Trillian is very good. It saps as much memory as MSN, but at least you have msn, aol, irc, icq, yahoo and rendezvous all in one

I'd noticed this too (in XP) but assumed it was some sort of problem with my setup so I ignored it. The spikes don't seem to happen all the time, either, but I can't quite work out what causes them. It seems to be for me after the computer (laptop) has been "on" for a good few days and with a good few sleep / resume cycles.

It also hogs the broadband connection as well ....it just keeps hammering away so others on the network take second place

I did download that windows live msn thing last night to give it a try. I hate it :(

I've still kept an older version which doesn't have all the bloatware crap in it. And I hardly use that (use trillian) unless there's some specific msn need trillian doesn't cater...

Id use trillian if it supported custom smiles lol

I'm pretty sure Trillian does support custom smilies..

SWMBO has installed several different skins for it and has loads of extra smiles over the default install..

It would be nice if they ported Trillian to OSX