We've been having some problems in our computer lab (I work in a college) with Internet Explorer absorbing 100% of the CPU while it's downloading a page. In normal circumstances, I'd do all the Windows updates, download some Spyware killers, etc... However, since I'm not part of the IT department, I don't have the privledges to do any of that stuff. So here's the bigger picture of the issue:

- The problem does not affect every computer in the lab. It seems to happen at random whenever a computer is turned on, although it happens on some computers more than others.
- Initially the pages load quickly and CPU usage is at 100% for a few seconds. But the more you use Internet Explorer, the slower it gets, eventually taking 5+ minutes to load a page.
- I've noticed under the performance tab of the Task Manager that it's creating thousands of new handles the longer you use Internet Explorer. Initally it's around 5600... but I've seen it go over 15000.
- Rebooting the machine *usually* fixes it, although sometimes it takes a second reboot.

I can't figure out what it's doing. I've closed pretty much every process that's not crucial to Windows and it doesn't fix anything. Does anyone have any ideas?

One more thing I forgot to mention, once Internet Explorer has finished loading everything on a page, CPU usages drops back down to 0%.