Gotta port some software to Windows... :-(  I'm a Windows newbie.

Using Ruby on Windows (XP)....

1.  How do I find out the CPU % (or some sort of a load indicator) of
the machine?

2.  How do I find out how much of a given ethernet connection is being
used?  (i.e. if it's a gigabit connection and 1Mbps are being used,
I'd like to get back "1%".

3.  Starting programs into the background is done the same way as on
*nix, right?

4.  How can I tell how much of a CPU a program is currently using?

5.  How do I start a Ruby program at boot (a service)?

6.  Can I use something like ruby2exe to package up my Ruby service?

7.  Does Windows use signals?  How can I tell a program that I've
started to stop (i.e. on *nix, I'd do it via SIGTERM or SIGKILL).

8.  Any known issues with DRb and Windows?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Joe