What's this program running on my machine?

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It depends on what the processes are, which is why this article was written - to help identify them. Many are important parts of the operating system itself, others are a waste of time. Once you know which is what, how you turn them off will, once again, depend on exactly what each process is.

There's no blanket answer, I'm afraid.

dear leo
your site is a valuable source of informatin and help. thanks. keep it up.

paul

I agree with the last comment 100%.

When will you post info on svhost. I have five of them don't know which I can delete. Marion

I have had several articles on svchost for a long time. Start here: http://ask-leo.com/about_svchost.html

Hi!

I have been reading many of your articles and am pleased with the clarity. I cannot seem however to find the article on svchost.exe. Call me thick if you will but I must be missing it.

Frustrated because I have three computers now all at standstill whill this exe files eats away at my CPU. In one case I am getting 100% red in the task manager!!!

I have read so much rubbish for days now contradicting themselves about this listening to everyone else saying the same problems with a myriad of unhelpful answers.

I know very well what it is what I want to know is how to kill whatever is possesing it!!!

Can you help?

Please???

Martin

You probably want this article: http://ask-leo.com/svchost_and_svchostexe_crashs_cpu_maximization_viruses_exploits_and_more.html

Hello I have 2 program icons on my desktop i wish to delete--i right click them and hit delete and it pauses and it said they are being run by a program and can't delete----check in task manager and nothing obvious is in there. I restart in safe mode and same result---is there a way to see what program is running these 2 items so I can delete them???? thanks---great web site by the way---so much info i am on overload---

Icons are just files on your machine, so this article may help: http://ask-leo.com/how_can_i_find_out_who_is_using_a_file_in_use.html

Desktop icons would be in c:\documents and settings\username\desktop and in c:\documents and settings\all users\desktop

So find out which applications have those icon files open, and then you can take appropriate action.

Big problem here. I instant messaged a friend's cell phone from my PC. Unfortunatly, the same message has been sent to her over and over on her cell phone all day long!!! No one seems to know how to stop it and each text message is costing her money. can you help?

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