Author Topic: What is svchost.exe and why is it running on my system?  (Read 4768 times)

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Offline Chris_

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What is svchost.exe and why is it running on my system?
« on: January 28, 2008, 05:58:06 PM »
You are no doubt reading this article because you are wondering why on earth there are nearly a dozen processes running with the name svchost.exe. You can't kill them, and you don't remember starting them… so what are they?

So What Is It?

According to Microsoft: "svchost.exe is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries". Could we have that in english please?

Some time ago, Microsoft started moving all of the functionality from internal Windows services into .dll files instead of .exe files. From a programming perspective this makes more sense for reusability… but the problem is that you can't launch a .dll file directly from Windows, it has to be loaded up from a running executable (.exe). Thus the svchost.exe process was born.

Why Are There So Many svchost.exes Running?

If you've ever taken a look at the Services section in control panel you might notice that there are a Lot of services required by Windows. If every single service ran under a single svchost.exe instance, a failure in one might bring down all of Windows… so they are separated out.

Those services are organized into logical groups, and then a single svchost.exe instance is created for each group. For instance, one svchost.exe instance runs the 3 services related to the firewall. Another svchost.exe instance might run all the services related to the user interface, and so on.

So What Can I Do About It?

You can trim down unneeded services by disabling or stopping the services that don't absolutely need to be running. Additionally, if you are noticing very heavy CPU usage on a single svchost.exe instance you can restart the services running under that instance.

The biggest problem is identifying what services are being run on a particular svchost.exe instance… we'll cover that below.

(more...)


http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/what-is-svchostexe-and-why-is-it-running/
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Offline Chris_

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Re: What is svchost.exe and why is it running on my system?
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2008, 05:59:24 PM »
One of my preferred resources, ProcessLibrary.

http://www.processlibrary.com/


Find instant definitions for any process running on you 2000/XP/Vista workstation.
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Offline morningAngel

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Re: What is svchost.exe and why is it running on my system?
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2008, 06:03:55 PM »
 :yawn:

Offline Chris_

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If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.

Offline morningAngel

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Re: What is svchost.exe and why is it running on my system?
« Reply #4 on: January 28, 2008, 06:07:40 PM »
 :bird:

Offline Chris_

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Re: What is svchost.exe and why is it running on my system?
« Reply #5 on: January 28, 2008, 06:11:31 PM »
It basically allows your network to work. 

Internet over Netbios (NBT) still requires little parts of the old Netbios to run.  svchost is one of those little parts.
If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.

Offline PatriotGame

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Re: What is svchost.exe and why is it running on my system?
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2008, 02:24:31 PM »
:bird:

Now that's funny right there. I don't care who you are, that there is funny!  :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
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Offline megimoo

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Re: What is svchost.exe and why is it running on my system?
« Reply #7 on: May 04, 2008, 01:32:26 PM »
:bird:

Now that's funny right there. I don't care who you are, that there is funny!  :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
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Offline MrsSmith

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Re: What is svchost.exe and why is it running on my system?
« Reply #8 on: May 04, 2008, 02:54:57 PM »
When we had a virus download once, I made a list of normal programs from Taskmaster on my work PC and compared it with what was running on our home PC...then stopped the ones that weren't on my work list.  I was then able to get online and download the updates I needed to get rid of that virus. 
.
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Offline megimoo

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Re: What is svchost.exe and why is it running on my system?
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2008, 05:25:38 PM »
You are no doubt reading this article because you are wondering why on earth there are nearly a dozen processes running with the name svchost.exe. You can't kill them, and you don't remember starting them… so what are they?

So What Is It?

According to Microsoft: "svchost.exe is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries". Could we have that in english please?

Some time ago, Microsoft started moving all of the functionality from internal Windows services into .dll files instead of .exe files. From a programming perspective this makes more sense for reusability… but the problem is that you can't launch a .dll file directly from Windows, it has to be loaded up from a running executable (.exe). Thus the svchost.exe process was born.

Why Are There So Many svchost.exes Running?

If you've ever taken a look at the Services section in control panel you might notice that there are a Lot of services required by Windows. If every single service ran under a single svchost.exe instance, a failure in one might bring down all of Windows… so they are separated out.

Those services are organized into logical groups, and then a single svchost.exe instance is created for each group. For instance, one svchost.exe instance runs the 3 services related to the firewall. Another svchost.exe instance might run all the services related to the user interface, and so on.

So What Can I Do About It?

You can trim down unneeded services by disabling or stopping the services that don't absolutely need to be running. Additionally, if you are noticing very heavy CPU usage on a single svchost.exe instance you can restart the services running under that instance.

The biggest problem is identifying what services are being run on a particular svchost.exe instance… we'll cover that below.

(more...)


http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/what-is-svchostexe-and-why-is-it-running/
Runtime library dll executables with Real svchost.exe.
Note: Real svchost.exe is a process belonging to Microsoft Service Host Process.
This could also be a stealth svchost.exe monitoring software that sits in the background and tracks all activities such as keyboard input (including websites visited, passwords etc.) This information can be sent to third parties through email or ftp uploads. If you did not intentionally install this program make sure you remove it to protect your privacy.

Svchost.exe gets worse before it's fixed
http://windowssecrets.com/comp/070621#story1