what is svchost.exe?

Factual Questions
1

This thing has a penchant for using 99% of my CPU, and right now it’s running in 5 instances, three of which are classified as SYSTEM. Anyone know what it is?

2

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/svchost/

3

It might be good, it might be bad: http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/svchost.exe.html

Note to Reeder: Many things masquerade as other things with the same name. Where it resides and where it executes can be very important. If it occupies 99% of your CPU time, it is unlikely to be from Microsoft.

4

Unless it’s Windows…

runs

5
  • Some chat/IM clients and trojans tend to produce this problem (of 99% CPU usage), but only when you have a network connection enabled–so if you externally enable/disable your internet connection (like, by turning the modem on and off) and the usage goes up only when you are connected and goes down when you disconnect, then it is this general problem of some network-active program. Then you’d want to see what kinds of chat/instant-messenger programs are running, including Windows Messenger (msmsgs.exe) which has been found to cause this problem.
  • Normally, the “system idle process” is the process that should be using most of the CPU when you are doing “nothing”.
    ~
6

Svchost.exe is a legitimate Windows application.

However, I see over 20 different bits of spyware/viruses that use that filename. You need to where it is running from.

The quick way is to click on “Start,” “Run,” and type in “msconfig” (no quotes) and click “OK.” Once msconfig runs, look at the startup tab. If you see svchost.exe as one of the startup programs, you have a problem.

A trip to http://housecalls.trendmicro.com will fix any virus problems, and you can download Microsoft’s Antivirus program to deal with spyware issues.

7

Oops – that URL is http://housecall.trendmicro.com