"part of windows" as you say -- but still a process showing up in the list nonetheless! One must not shut these processes down, regardless of where they came from originally.
P.S. My Microsoft Optical mouse and the several before it requires MS' optical mouse drivers. I learned that the hard way. Without said drivers you get jitters, problems, snap-motions, and other long-term problems that go away as soon as you install the driver. Learned that through practical experience. They are not plug-and-play, despite pretending to be.
