svchost.exe can be considered the father of all Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 processes. If you open your Task Manager, in the Processes Tab, you will notice that svchost.exe is present in many instances that run simultaneously. Most users who see the multitude of open svchost.exe might think that their computer is infected with viruses, trojans or other malware programs.
svchost.exe is the first service that starts when you boot your operating system. It is responsible with checking the vital registry ( windows registry ) to create a list and group services ( REG_MULTI_SZ ) which require to be loaded and launched simultaneously through svchost.exe. The first services loaded in svchost.exe are sound drivers, video drivers, network drivers like: Audiosrv, DHCP, EventLog, HomeGroup Provider, lmhosts, wscsvc, AudioEndPointBuilder, CSCSERVICe, and much more.
The svchost.exe groups are located in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Svchost
svchost.exe, launches on many occasions services that are not useful for everybody. Because each service may consume system resources, RAM and CPU, advanced users seek to shutdown the start-up of these services. The service groups that are using the svchost.exe processes can be best viewed in Command Prompt.
Go to your Start Menu > Run > type cmd and then press Enter. When the command prompt window opens type Tasklist /SVC and hit enter.
svchost.exe, being a process that is present everybody, is the most present one in the error messages and the most targeted by viruses, trojans, spyware, svchost.exe representing an ideal front for malware services and applications.
To keep your computer safe and to prevent this file from being infected ( present in the %SystemRoot%\System32 folder ) it’s best to use anti virus and anti spyware applications. Daily updates of your anti virus and a periodic scan of your computer and file systems can help you stay away from online threats.
