Why is svchost.exe running

A quick look at the Task Manager in your Windows operating system could introduce you to a list of several instances of svchost.exe. An average Windows user is likely to be surprised by the fact that several processes titled svchost.exe are running and taking CPU resources. Microsoft explains svchost.exe as a generic host process name for services that are running from the dynamic link libraries. However, you’d have to be a tech wizard to make any clear sense of Microsoft’s definition. We all know that certain .dll files are important for applications. Svchost.exe is a process used to load up .dll files

Windows needs loads of services for proper functioning, and this fact explains the occurrence of multiple svchost.exe processes in the task manager. Each svchost.exe instance is dedicated to manage the services related to a specific group, for instance, user interfacing. Multiple svchost.exe processes are needed because all essential services for Windows’ operations can’t be entrusted to a single process, as any error leading to a crashing of the process will then crash the entire Windows session.

It is important to know how svchost.exe processes can be managed to make the best use of CPU memory. You can definitely cut down all those services that are not required, but are eating down vital CPU resources. Also, it is possible for you to restart the services that exhibit signs of excessive CPU use on any svchost.exe process. Of course, in order to be able to find such services, you will need to find as to which services are being catered to by a specific svchost.exe process. For this, you have to first open the Task Manger and then click on the “show processes from all users” box. You can also use the command prompt window to see as to which services have been grouped under a specific instance of svchost.exe. You’ve got to use the tasklist/SVC command in command prompt window. However, it is always a problem to make sense of the coded names that come up. However, checking the same in Microsoft Vista is a breeze. All you have to do is to right click on the svchost.exe process you want to analyze, and select the option titled ‘Go To Service.’ In this manner, you can easily find the exact name of the service, and once you know the name, it is easy to disable them to free up memory. The Process Explorer from Microsoft is a decent application to know the name of the service. With this installed, you just have to hover the mouse cursor on any svchost.exe process and the service it caters to will be shown. There are generally more than one service that you would want to disable to make appreciable improvement in the CPU usage.

There are two methods you can use to disable the services that you feel are eating up CPU resources. You can either open the Services option from the Control Panel, or use the Run option in Windows to open the same, by typing services.msc and hitting the Enter key. You’ll see a long list of services open up. Now, select the service you wish to terminate and either right click on it, or double click on it. A list opens; find Properties in the list, and click on it. To disable services by using the command prompt, use the following command, replacing service_name with the name of the service you want to disable: sc config trkwks start= disabled.