I have 4 svchost.exe processes listed under task manager. I heard that the blaster virus or something similar exploits svchost.exe. How do I get rid of it, and stop this program from running multiple times. Also, regsvc never used to run until I installed a program (i uninstalled the program and now regsvc won’t stop running on startup i can’t end task it either) What’s the deal?
If you’re on Windows XP, it’s pretty normal to have 3 or 4 running. If you’re worried, run a virus check, it’ll catch Blaster virusorsomethings.
There’s a patch available on the Microsoft website that closes SVCHOST.EXE to the exploiting viruses. (There were threads about this, including one that was made sticky here in GQ, a while ago.)
In Task Manager, there will be several processes listed as “svchost.exe”. Anything not identical to this, such as “Svchost.exe” or “SvcHost.exe” is likely to be a virus.
Unfortunately, many virus alerts don’t make the distinction - they may validly catch an svc-clone, but the way they inform you of it suggests that svchost.exe is inherently bad.