I finally found the culprit. After a repair reinstall of Windows 7 didn't fix the problem, I went all out and did a full format and reinstall of Windows 7.
Installed all windows updates, all is well.....
Installed several of my Must Have Stardock Products, and the problem returned.
So, I uninstalled all Stardock products, problem is gone again.
After several install/uninstalls of various Stardock products, I finally narrowed it down to DeskScapes 8. Without DS8, I have no multiple explorer.exes in task manager bogging down a system with 12 GB ram, a 6 core cpu, and an SSD.
I am currently running DeskScapes 3 with no problems.
Also running Fences 2, WindowBlinds, CursorFX, WindowFX.
So, if you still have the problem, try uninstalling DeskScapes8. Remember to deactivate it first, via about.