# svchost.exe hogging CPU

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/svchost-exe-hogging-cpu/533820>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 26, 2010, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/svchost-exe-hogging-cpu/533820 "2010-03-26T00:54:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/svchost-exe-hogging-cpu/533820/1 "2010-03-26T00:54:49Z")

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I have Vista Premium from a few years ago. I have a number of svchost.exe processes running right now. Most are using no CPU, but one is, and a lot of it, 48% at last check. I kill it, and it comes back. How do I stop this?

I am running only Google chrome, btw.

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**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/svchost-exe-hogging-cpu/533820/2 "2010-03-26T00:59:48Z")

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Install [Process Explorer](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx) and see what programs are running under that svchost.

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**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/svchost-exe-hogging-cpu/533820/3 "2010-03-26T01:02:18Z")

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Here’s a decent [article](http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/what-is-svchostexe-and-why-is-it-running/) that sheds some light on the issue

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/svchost-exe-hogging-cpu/533820/4 "2010-03-26T03:03:44Z")

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Some svchost.exe’s are parasitic malware fakes. Kaspersky caught one on my machine and the CPU utilization went way down after removal.