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 2000/XP only. 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 recommend against removing the file. Doing so could have unpredictable results.

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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