Generic Host Process for Win32 Services - SVCHOST.EXE

Svchost.exe is a Generic Service Host Process for Win32 Services. It installs as a part of Windows 2000, Windows XP Home and XP Professional, Windows 2003, and the Windows Vista family of products. Svchost acts as a host for processes that run from dlls rather than exes. At startup svchost checks the Services portion of the Registry to construct a list of dll-based services that it needs to load, and then loads them. There can be many instances of svchost running, as there will be one instance of svchost for every dll-based service or grouping of services.

Under Windows XP you can find out what dll-based services svchost is running by typing Tasklist /svc at a Command Prompt (MS-DOS Prompt), while under Windows 2000 you need to use the tlist –s command from a Command Prompt (MS-DOS Prompt).

Because svchost is responsible for so many other processes, we'd strongly recommend against removing the file. Doing so could have unpredictable results.

You'll find background information on Svchost in Windows Vista at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/02/VistaKernel/default.aspx. To learn how to determine if any services are running under a particular process such as svchost.exe, visit http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/a301db42-d72d-4493-8063-dc02891ac0e91033.mspx.

You'll find a description of Svchost in Windows XP at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314056.

For a description of svchost in Windows 2000, visit http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q250320.

Sadly, some viruses attack and hide in this file. If your system is behaving strangely, please run a complete scan using your favorite antivirus software.

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