I saw this for the first time on my parents Lenovo tablet. I'd switch it on, and it would be slow to say the least. Not sure if it was like this when the device was new, but I was troubleshooting it, and noticed about 80 or so background processes running simultanously in task manager / msconfig. They all seemed legit (not malware or anything).

Now, i'm seeing it in a Lenovo laptop me and the missus bought a couple of months ago for about £350, the Lenovo Yoga 500. It's constantly churning the CPU at about 10-20% with spikes to 50% WHEN IDLING!, and suffice to say, it's making me pretty fucking angry. I've tried disabling some processes permanently, but I have no idea which are essential and which are a waste of time.

Any of you guys seen this before?

Can you get a full task list? Easiest way to do that is to open a command prompt (search for cmd or go to run and type cmd) and type 'tasklist > c:\tasks.txt'. You'll end up with a list of running tasks in a file on c:\ called tasks.txt.

Have I seen issues with background tasks chewing up way too much processor? Absolutely. Regarding your specific screenshots...

In the first screenshot, there are several things that are problematic.

1. CPU usage running at around 20%. As you noted, that's high for background processes.
2. 4GB of memory... that's kinda low for a modern computer. If you can upgrade this to 8GB, you'll see much better performance. If you can't, then ignore.
3. Disk 0 at 100% write. Something is churning your disk. I suspect I know what it is. More on that later. I think this is the real reason your system is running like crap.

Second screenshot.

Most of the processes listed there are normal. There are a few standouts, though.

1. Skype. Unless you use it, this doesn't need to be running. Disable it or remove it. There's stuff on the internet on how to do that in Win10.
2. Antimalware - if this is actively scanning the system, that may be the issue. Just leaving the system alone and letting this do its thing may cause your problems to go away.
3. Microsoft Windows Search Indexer - This may not be doing anything, or it may be scanning your disk for changed files. You can disable file indexing to improve performance, though it'll make search much slower. If you're fighting for performance, disabling this is a must. It should also be disabled on SSDs as it causes unnecessary wear and tear. SSDs are already pretty fast.
4. McAfee Scanner service - McAfee is terrible. So is Norton. Kill it with fire. This may be actively scanning your hard drive, but even if not, it should be destroyed.

If you notice, there are 3 things in that list that may be actively scanning your drive for various reasons. Any 1 can cause significant performance issues. All 3 going at once would be unbearable and, since they interfere with one another, would take a really long time to go away.

Another option is to upgrade your hard drive to an SSD, if it isn't already one. SSDs are so much faster than spinning disks that these kinds of issues don't really occur with them. Assuming it is a disk access problem you're seeing. From the info provided, though, it certainly looks like it.

Great post. Thanks man! Next time I fire it up, i'll have a gander.

Seems like a good solution to most of these problems is not to buy any Lenovo stuff.