Useful Info On The Svchost Exe Process
What is svchost exe?
Svchost.exe is a Microsoft Windows executable file that is required by Windows to load needed DLL files that are used with Windows and Windows programs running on your computer system. You may see svchost labeled as: Generic Host Process for Win32 Services.
Where is svchost exe located?
Svchost.exe is located in the Windows system32 folder. In Windows XP the default path is c:\windows\system32 and in Windows 2000 the default path is c:\winnt\system32.
When I view the Task Manager in Windows I see multiple svchost.exe processes, is this normal?
Seeing multiple instances of the svchost exe is normal. When a program needs to be grouped from other Microsoft Windows services you will see multiple instances of svchost.exe.
Is it ok to remove the svchost exe?
You should not try to remove svchost.exe for this will most likely cause your Windows installation to stop working. You can however disable services running via svchost.
I’ve heard computer viruses can run as Svchost.exe, is this true?
Yes there are some computer viruses that run as svchost.exe, if you suspect you have a virus update your Antivirus software to the latest definition files and run a full system scan immediately.
Can I view the services that are running via svchost.exe?
Yes you can view the services running under the svchost exe host process, and there are multiple ways to do this. One way is to run the Microsoft command line utility tasklist, and another that we recommend is the Process Explorer utility.
Tasklist Usage:
Windows XP or Vista: Click start, Click run, Type CMD and press enter. Once you are in the command prompt window type tasklist /svc and press enter.
Windows 2000: Click start, Click run, Type CMD and press enter. Once you are in the command prompt window type tasklist -s and press enter.
Unfortunately when using tasklist you can’t really decipher what the names are.
Because of this we prefer to view svchost.exe services via a graphical interface and we highly recommend you check out the powerful Process Explorer Utility.
Process Explorer Usage:
After you download and launch Process Explorer simply hover your mouse over the svchost.exe process and it will show running services just like the example below.
Double clicking on a svchost.exe process will give you access to additional options. Once you double clicked on a specific instance simply click on the services tab. Then from within the services tab if desired you can even click the stop button to stop a service.
Tip: Unless you are completely sure about the service you are stopping, we don’t recommend it.
Conclusion:
We hope you find this brief tutorial to the svchost.exe process useful and informative. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us anytime for we would be more than happy to answer your questions.
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