On my HP laptop the WMI Provider Host was consuming 25% of my CPU. This just started one day. The offending process ended up being the HP Wireless Assistant Service, which is not needed as Win7 provides WiFi services. To turn it off:
- On your desktop right-click on Computer and select Manage
- Select Services and Applications and double click Services
- Right click on the HP Wireless Assistant Service and select Properties
- Change the Startup Type to Manual