Svchost.exe is a part of Windows and the name stands for Service Host. Many components of the Windows operating system runs as a service , a program that runs in the background and are not associated with who is logged into the system.
You can quickly and easily see which services are running on Windows , start a command prompt and typing
net start
or by right- clicking Computer , select Manage , expand " Services and Applications" and then click Services. The first method has the advantage that only those who are running. There are many things that are common to many services : how they start , how they interact with the system and how they are run. Instead of writing a complete service from the beginning , many implemented as a type of program that is run by a different program.
The host application is just svchost.exe , which is designed to host one or more actual services. It is the program that is running and instructed then what service it will include . The actual service is normally found in a dll file svchost.exe to connect to and program may actually host multiple services at once. So even if you have some of Svchost in the process list , it probably means that it's about even more services .
One way to check this is to use a more advanced process than the list in Task . Process Explorer is one which can be downloaded here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx . In this program , you can hold the mouse over the different instances of svchost.exe to see what services it runs .
Since it would normally be expected that there will be multiple copies of svchost.exe and its function is quite mysterious for the average computer user , there have been manufacturers of malicious programs have taken advantage of this either by trying to run their code as a service or through to give it a similar name .
File protection in later versions of Windows has made this very difficult and it's probably long ago it occurred , but it is then from there the virus data comes . Since you're running Windows 7 - and probably a reputable security software, in addition, - you need not be worried in that regard.
However, you may then be calm, svchost.exe is a legitimate program , an essential component of Windows , and it's also quite normal to occur in several instances. Only if it 's in a folder other than \ Windows \ System32 , it may be necessary to examine more closely.
