what is the purpose of Livecomm.exe and Skydrive.exe

Suspended processes are ones that are running in/from the metro interface splash screen. A good way to demonstrate this to yourself is open the Metro version of Internet Explorer then switch to the Desktop. Open Task Manager -> Resource Monitor and you'll see under CPU that at least one (perhaps several) instances of Internet Explorer are displayed as Suspended. If you mouse over the top left corner of the desktop, you'll see the small box that shows Metro IE open, right click and close it and the suspended process will disappear.

If you want to remove the LiveComm.exe for good, go to the Metro screen, right-click the Messaging app and select Uninstall. It will also remove the Calendar app and the Metro Mail app, but for those of us on a Desktop this is likely a non-issue.

It sounds like a great answer but is not an answer to the question. The exes are the core of the app services for Live. The suspended state may or may not be set depending on the app. If no activity is required by an app then it will call to suspend. It can also wake up and not be suspended. Suspended has nothing to do with anything. Any EXE can be suspended but metro apps call to suspend by design.

A metro app is an executable that runs in the Metro sandbox. Other than that it is still an executable and still runs as one. Consider it as a process running under the metro session's control but it is still just an application with a fancy new name (aka Apple). If I look at task manager will see all manner of processes that are suspended. Many have nothing to do with Metro.  What I will see intermittently is that "Communications Service" is suspended. This is the main task for the Live components  mail and contacts. It runs intermittently to poll for updates. In between it suspends itself. When watching the Start or Metro screen you cannot see this but it is still happening.

I suspect the suspended status does not show when we first open task manger because task manager is not completed updating. I can force it to toggle by switching back and forth. but it will only be not suspended for a split second.