Article ID: 314056 - Last Review: December 10, 2007 - Revision: 2.1 A description of Svchost.exe in Windows XP Professional EditionThis article was previously published under Q314056
For a Microsoft Windows 2000 version of this article, see 250320
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/250320/
)
.
INTRODUCTION
This article describes Svchost.exe and its functions. Svchost.exe is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries (DLLs).
Note Tasklist is not included in Windows XP Home Edition. This article is intended for advanced users in commercial environments. If you are not comfortable with advanced information, you might want to ask someone for help or contact support. For information about how to contact support, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/
(http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/)
MORE INFORMATION
The Svchost.exe file is located in the %SystemRoot%\System32 folder. At startup, Svchost.exe checks the services part of the registry to construct a list of services that it must load. Multiple instances of Svchost.exe can run at the same time. Each Svchost.exe session can contain a grouping of services. Therefore, separate services can run, depending on how and where Svchost.exe is started. This grouping of services allows for better control and easier debugging.
Svchost.exe groups are identified in the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Svchost
Each value under this key represents a separate Svchost group and appears as a separate instance when you are viewing active processes. Each value is a REG_MULTI_SZ value and contains the services that run under that Svchost group. Each Svchost group can contain one or more service names that are extracted from the following registry key, whose Parameters key contains a ServiceDLL value:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Service
To view the list of services that are running in Svchost:
Tasklist /FI "PID eq processID" (with the quotation marks)
The following example of Tasklist output shows two instances of Svchost.exe that are running.
Image Name PID Services
========================================================================
System Process 0 N/A
System 8 N/A
Smss.exe 132 N/A
Csrss.exe 160 N/A
Winlogon.exe 180 N/A
Services.exe 208 AppMgmt,Browser,Dhcp,Dmserver,Dnscache,
Eventlog,LanmanServer,LanmanWorkstation,
LmHosts,Messenger,PlugPlay,ProtectedStorage,
Seclogon,TrkWks,W32Time,Wmi
Lsass.exe 220 Netlogon,PolicyAgent,SamSs
Svchost.exe 404 RpcSs
Spoolsv.exe 452 Spooler
Cisvc.exe 544 Cisvc
Svchost.exe 556 EventSystem,Netman,NtmsSvc,RasMan,
SENS,TapiSrv
Regsvc.exe 580 RemoteRegistry
Mstask.exe 596 Schedule
Snmp.exe 660 SNMP
Winmgmt.exe 728 WinMgmt
Explorer.exe 812 N/A
Cmd.exe 1300 N/A
Tasklist.exe 1144 N/A
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Svchost: Netsvcs: Reg_Multi_SZ: EventSystem Ias Iprip Irmon Netman Nwsapagent Rasauto Rasman Remoteaccess SENS Sharedaccess Tapisrv Ntmssvc RApcss :Reg_Multi_SZ: RpcSs
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