What is svchost.exe

[Terry Tortoise]

This keeps popping up and taking up to 50% of CPU for no apparent reasons. I bring up Task Manager and kill it,with no ill effects but some time later it pops up again, I can tell the way by system slows down. This is how it appears in TM and often there are multiple instances marked LOCAL, SYSTEM (as below) and NETWORK

It's becoming a nuisance.

 

[TrainableMan]

svchost is a windows service - it is called by other programs so killing it does very little. You would need to find out what program is actually using it. Most likely it is your anti-virus software or google chrome, etc accessing the web for updates.

 

[Terry Tortoise]

Maybe but it only started to appear a few weeks ago and isn't always present. The only extra prog. on the system is Skybot S&Destroy, installed a few weeks ago . I could unistall it and see what happens the reinstall if not effect. Only other anti-malware on system is Malwarebytes and that has been there long before this started. Thanks anyway.

 

[Terry Tortoise]

svchost is a windows service - it is called by other programs so killing it does very little. You would need to find out what program is actually using it. Most likely it is your anti-virus software or google chrome, etc accessing the web for updates.

I have uninstalled Skybot, restarted and with Google only running, ran Task Manager. svchost gradually built up over two minutes or so from 2% CPU to a max of 52% staying in that area until I closed it down.

 

[TrainableMan]

Install Process Explorer (basically a more advanced Task Manager) & you will see lots of copies of svchost.exe running. Watch the CPU percentage & you should see which is using the bulk of it. Double-click on that copy & look at Services to see what is using it.

 

[Terry Tortoise]

Thanks but when I do that and find 'x' processes running what do I do? I cab't stop them without knowing what they are doing and if I need them. Why has this suddenly happened, although with Windows his sort of erratic behavior is the nrom.

 

[TrainableMan]

Once you see what programs cause it you can see if it is reasonably safe to turn it off. For example Google Chrome installs background programs that run as soon as you boot up the computer and the little value they add is not worth it to me to have them running all the time. There are also things like the search indexer whose job is simply to constantly search your system in the background storing keywords so that when you run a search from the start bar it is faster; do you run many searches to make this overhead worth the cost?

Unfortunately I don't know what has changed on your computer but knowing what is using your CPU is the first step to determining if it can be turned off or uninstalled.

 

[Terry Tortoise]

When I run PE and hit 'threads' or 'strings' I get amass of unintelligible stuff from the former and a huge list of names from the latter. I have no idea how to select, decide on their use and then stop them running and permanently. Attach a 'string' list.
Thanks for the help so far ..

 

[TrainableMan]

While ProcExp is running, click on the column heading "Process" until it shows in a tree format.

then double-click on the svchost.exe taking CPU (in my example it was taking <0.01) & in the window that opens chose the Services tab. In my example you can see three things, the last one of which clearly mentions it is running for Windows Defender Firewall. If you are not sure, post a screenshot of your Services window.

 

[Terry Tortoise]

Thanks, will give it a try.

 

[Terry Tortoise]

While ProcExp is running, click on the column heading "Process" until it shows in a tree format.
View attachment 7077
then double-click on the svchost.exe taking CPU (in my example it was taking <0.01) & in the window that opens chose the Services tab. In my example you can see three things, the last one of which clearly mentions it is running for Windows Defender Firewall. If you are not sure, post a screenshot of your Services window.
View attachment 7078

I've been thinking. I don't want to stop just svchost every time it is a nuisance but stop it remaining active after doing what it is supposed to do. It hasn't always been happening and I'd love to know why.

 

[frankt]

SvcHost is a generic host process designed to cater the needs of multiple Windows services at once, rather than giving each service its own process which would increase the burden on the system. It makes your computer process really slow

 

[Terry Tortoise]

As I said, I want to stop it lingering around at 50% CPU but doing nothing. Screen shot attached - failed. Doesn't like .mht, .docx - what format does it want?

 

[Terry Tortoise]

Here is a screen shot.

 

[TrainableMan]

At the time of your screenshot the computer was 70.39% idle and none of the svchost.exe processes are even using 1%. You will want to look at this screen during a time you indicate svchost.exe is taking 50% or more.

 

[Terry Tortoise]

At the time of your screenshot the computer was 70.39% idle and none of the svchost.exe processes are even using 1%. You will want to look at this screen during a time you indicate svchost.exe is taking 50% or more.

Difficult to do but will try. The crux of my thread is why is it running at all when I am doing nothing except stare at a Google screen? Is ther not some parameter to make svchost go to sleep when it has done what it has to do (assuming it does)?

 

[Terry Tortoise]

Here is a snip with a busy svchost. Can't upload. What file extensions DOES this forum want??

 

[TrainableMan]

A PNG or JPG should work.

SVCHOST is running because some program is making it run. It may not be because of what you are doing, in fact it probably isn't, it is likely running for a background process such as Windows Updates or refreshing search indexes or your anti-virus scanning or one of the hundreds of background tasks. So you must figure out what program/task it is running so you can then decide whether it can be uninstalled or scheduled to run at a different time.

 

[Terry Tortoise]

Here is screenshot with 48.x % svchost running. This comes and goes from almost zero % to about 50% at seemingly random times. Hope it helps.

 

[TrainableMan]

The CPU being used is the green column, none of the SVCHOST entries in that picture show anything over 1% of your processor, so scroll down to find processes actually using significant amounts of CPU.