the case of the two iexplore.exe processes

i recently noticed that anytime i open internet explorer, i have two iexplore.exe processes on windows vista.  in trying to troubleshoot this, i reinstalled a test system and was reminded in internet explorer 7 and protected mode we introduced a secondary process called ieuser.exe that "sandboxes" internet explorer from the current user security context.  since i had upgraded to internet explorer 8, i wondered if it was just the way windows vista was seeing the ieuser.exe and iexplore.exe processes now. i'll share my troubleshooting and findings in future blog posts - wish me luck!