diff --git a/.jules/bolt.md b/.jules/bolt.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c566df5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.jules/bolt.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+## 2025-05-20 - Optimize psutil.process_iter overhead
+**Learning:** Querying all attributes (like `memory_info` and `status`) in `psutil.process_iter` for every process on the system is highly inefficient, as it fetches expensive data for many processes we don't care about.
+**Action:** Only query `['pid', 'name']` initially. Lazily fetch expensive attributes like `memory_info()` and `status()` on the individual process objects only after filtering for our target processes (e.g., 'excel.exe'). Wrap these in try-except to safely catch process termination exceptions like `psutil.NoSuchProcess`, `psutil.AccessDenied`, and `psutil.ZombieProcess`.
diff --git a/desktop_services/excel_service.py b/desktop_services/excel_service.py
index d79b36b..16c5e63 100644
--- a/desktop_services/excel_service.py
+++ b/desktop_services/excel_service.py
@@ -206,17 +206,27 @@ def get_running_instances(self) -> List[Dict[str, Any]]:
     def _get_excel_process_snapshots(self) -> Dict[int, Dict[str, Any]]:
         """Find Excel processes with one psutil scan for refresh performance."""
         snapshots: Dict[int, Dict[str, Any]] = {}
-        for proc in psutil.process_iter(["pid", "name", "memory_info", "status"]):
+        for proc in psutil.process_iter(["pid", "name"]):
             try:
                 info = proc.info
                 process_name = info.get("name") or ""
-                if process_name.lower() != "excel.exe":
+                if process_name.casefold() != "excel.exe":
                     continue
                 pid = int(info["pid"])
+
+                # Lazily fetch expensive attributes only for target processes to avoid
+                # querying them for all system processes during the psutil iteration.
+                try:
+                    memory_info = proc.memory_info()
+                    status = proc.status()
+                except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied, psutil.ZombieProcess):
+                    memory_info = None
+                    status = "running"
+
                 snapshots[pid] = {
                     "name": process_name,
-                    "memory_mb": self._memory_mb_from_info(info.get("memory_info")),
-                    "status": info.get("status") or "running",
+                    "memory_mb": self._memory_mb_from_info(memory_info),
+                    "status": status or "running",
                 }
             except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied, psutil.ZombieProcess):
                 continue
diff --git a/desktop_services/operations_cockpit_service.py b/desktop_services/operations_cockpit_service.py
index be2853d..f968732 100644
--- a/desktop_services/operations_cockpit_service.py
+++ b/desktop_services/operations_cockpit_service.py
@@ -852,19 +852,28 @@ def _default_processes() -> list[dict[str, Any]]:
         if psutil is None:
             return []
         processes = []
-        for proc in psutil.process_iter(["pid", "name", "memory_info", "status"]):
+        for proc in psutil.process_iter(["pid", "name"]):
             try:
                 info = proc.info
-            except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied):
+            except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied, psutil.ZombieProcess):
                 continue
             if str(info.get("name") or "").casefold() != "excel.exe":
                 continue
+
+            # Lazily fetch expensive attributes only for target processes to avoid
+            # querying them for all system processes during the psutil iteration.
+            try:
+                memory_info = proc.memory_info()
+                status = proc.status()
+            except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied, psutil.ZombieProcess):
+                memory_info = None
+                status = None
             processes.append(
                 {
                     "pid": info.get("pid"),
                     "name": info.get("name"),
-                    "memory_info": info.get("memory_info"),
-                    "status": info.get("status"),
+                    "memory_info": memory_info,
+                    "status": status,
                 }
             )
         return processes