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Hello all. When I press ctr+alt+del and look at my processes running, the biggest memory-user is svchost.exe. What exactly does this executable do, and is it possible to disable?
It really only takes up the same amount of memory as one instance of IE so it's not all that important. I guess I'm just more curious as to what it is than anything.
Thanks!
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Please read through this MSKB article, "After You Install a Visioneer USB Scanner the CPU Usage May Be Unusually High (Q303777)."
Paul,
Besides the normal legitimate use many viruses masquerade themselves as SVCHOST to escape detection. Some have names that are similar, such as SCCHOST, while others actually drop a program file called SVCHOST in the Windows or Windows System directory.
If you see one called Svchost32 then you have a virus. It may be one of the following viruses : Backdoor.IRC.Zcrew, W32.HLLW.Deborms.C, W32.Mimail.J@mm, or the W32.Paylap.@mm virus which mimics a PayPal account renewal screen. Note that there are other lesser known, or newer (!!) viruses which also show as a program called SVCHOST32.EXE.
See this link for more info:
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist_s.htm
If in fact David is right that you have a virus,which I think he is because on my XP Home svchost uses none of the CPU, a free easy and very up-to-date way to get rid of viruses is Housecall-TrendMicro's free online virus scanner:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com
Heh! Thanks for pointing that out!
Indeed in my Task Manager I see multiple instances of svchost.exe but their CPU usage is "00".
So you could be onto the cause...virus!
I was just pointing out that it could be a virus in disguise.
Time for a full scan with Bob's anti-parasite suite:
http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6132-0.html?forumID=32&threadID=1313&start=0
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