Make sure it is CPU intensive. Some programs are slow because they need more physical and/or virtual memory. Also defraging your hard drive may help. If your laptop is SATA then you could try a solid state hard drive.
When you are using the programs, right click on the Taskbar and select "Start Task Manager". The bottom of that window will show you the CPU usage. You could select the program from the list (under "Task"), right click on the program, then select "Go to process" and look under CPU. That will truly tell you if the program is CPU intensive, or if another process is (Windows services, security suites, viruses, spyware, adware, hackware, other programs, etc.)
If it truly is the programs you are using that is hogging the CPU, and shutting down other programs and Windows services doesn't work, then your best bet is to buy another laptop. The problems trying to put a quad core into a dual core supported board are:
- the cost of CPUs is high
- the entire laptop must be disassembled and reassembled (labour costs)
- and not all dual core supported motherboards support quad core processors.
Hope this helps.