svchost.exe

ríomhaire

ríomhaire

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I am no computer wiz, I don't know what processes should and shouldn't be running on my computer but when I load up the task manager and see one process running multiple times I get suspicious. Right now I have svchost.exe running 6 times. 3 of them say SYSTEM, 2 of them say NETWORK SERVICE and 1 says LOCAL SERVICE. Is this normal or should I be worried?
 
260322268640670384992229424433206873du2.png
 
Its normal for there to be multiple svchost's
 
Each instance of Svchost process [you see in Task Manager] launches a list of services. Multiple instances of Svchost.exe can run at the same time. Four or five instances of svchost.exe is normal.

WARNING: There are viruses circulating in the internet which uses the same name as svchost.exe. The legit svchost.exe will be present in the %Windir%\System32 folder.
 
I one time made a virus that loaded when windows did that was named Svchost.exe. It was awsome as no one could find it and all it did was constantly ring the CPU bell like something was wrong. Our comp teacher freaked out, especially when my friends that knew about it started putting it on more computers and she disconnected the network because she thought it was spreading. To make things better while that was happening the principal of the school walked in and our teacher was wearing a t-shirt that said "I don't know what is going on". It was classic, she never forgave me.
 
I one time made a virus that loaded when windows did that was named Svchost.exe. It was awsome as no one could find it and all it did was constantly ring the CPU bell like something was wrong. Our comp teacher freaked out, especially when my friends that knew about it started putting it on more computers and she disconnected the network because she thought it was spreading. To make things better while that was happening the principal of the school walked in and our teacher was wearing a t-shirt that said "I don't know what is going on". It was classic, she never forgave me.
Click to expand...
lol. I find viruses named Scvhost.exe very easy to find because there location is different from the rest.

Very good story though.
 
Glirk Dient said:
I one time made a virus that loaded when windows did that was named Svchost.exe. It was awsome as no one could find it and all it did was constantly ring the CPU bell like something was wrong. Our comp teacher freaked out, especially when my friends that knew about it started putting it on more computers and she disconnected the network because she thought it was spreading. To make things better while that was happening the principal of the school walked in and our teacher was wearing a t-shirt that said "I don't know what is going on". It was classic, she never forgave me.
Click to expand...


wow, where I live, they would arrest you for messing with stuff like that.....
 
Glirk Dient said:
I one time made a virus that loaded when windows did that was named Svchost.exe. It was awsome as no one could find it and all it did was constantly ring the CPU bell like something was wrong. Our comp teacher freaked out, especially when my friends that knew about it started putting it on more computers and she disconnected the network because she thought it was spreading. To make things better while that was happening the principal of the school walked in and our teacher was wearing a t-shirt that said "I don't know what is going on". It was classic, she never forgave me.
Click to expand...

Obviously it wasn't a virus because it didn't spread naturally via programming. It was just... a program.
 
Cole said:
lol. I find viruses named Scvhost.exe very easy to find because there location is different from the rest.
Click to expand...
How do you check its location? (besides using search)
 
How do you check its location? (besides using search)
Click to expand...
Hijackthis or Startuplist.

I prefer Startuplist, it is made by the same people. Startuplist shows all the programs running, there locations, all there dll's, and a bunch of more info. I like hijackthis when posting logs of all the things running.
 
What'd be the average amount of proccess running at once. I counted a week ago, I think it was ~40.
 
17-25, depending on which OS and what sort of programs you have (modem, vid card, anti-virus, etc...)

But 40 is way too much.
 
Hey Ríomhaire, read this http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314056 .
Take couple of Aspirin and watch your blood-pressure. You got nothing to worry about.
Svchost it just OS program that runs other background programs nice and easy so they don't collide, and cause you havoc behind your back. Meaning keeping the system stable.
You can have multiple svchost.exe loaded in Windows loader at any given time. Also svchost can be used by Trojans and Hackers, so to run and set back-door.
So if there are no problems to report or your system is not hacked, programs are not installing themselves without your knowledge, and your mouse doesnt have a mind of its own, you got nothing to worry about.

Good Luck.
 
I'm sure there's a Trojan hidden in there somewhere.
untitledum2.jpg
 
Hey, I checked out that link that Gunner posted and it seems I have a heap of that top security risks stuff. How the hell do I get rid of all of it permanently, because it's scaring the crap out of me.
 
ríomhaire said:
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/4673/proccessek7.png
Full list of proccesses on my PC after turning on having started no programmes myself. How do I stop things iTunesHelper and crap from starting with my PC and is any of that stuff harmful. I need to stop some of it, it's really hurting my performance :(
Click to expand...


If you're on XP just click START>RUN and type MSCONFIG, then go to the startup tab on the right, uncheck everything you don't want to run on startup, and do the same under the services tab. Things like ITunesHelper might keep coming back unless you disable them from inside ITunes.
 
Zephos said:
Hey, I checked out that link that Gunner posted and it seems I have a heap of that top security risks stuff. How the hell do I get rid of all of it permanently, because it's scaring the crap out of me.

Here's a bad screenie, I'll get a better one in a minute....

untitled.bmp
Click to expand...

If you can still boot your pc then there's nothing to worry about. The easiest way to remove spyware, is to boot in safe mode and turn off system restore then run all the anti-spyware software you have: such as ad-aware, spybot S&D, spyblaster, etc... run even a few anti-virus tests too.

You can also manually delete things from starting up when windows boots by going into regedit: in HKLM/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/run and in HKCU/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/run also.

Good luck :)
 
Gunner said:
If you can still boot your pc then there's nothing to worry about. The easiest way to remove spyware, is to boot in safe mode and turn off system restore then run all the anti-spyware software you have: such as ad-aware, spybot S&D, spyblaster, etc... run even a few anti-virus tests too.

You can also manually delete things from starting up when windows boots by going into regedit: in HKLM/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/run and in HKCU/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/run also.

Good luck :)
Click to expand...

Thanks mate :)
 
Hmmm, I seem to have a good few proccesses with similar names to the ones to the security risks. I suppose that's because they make them like real ones to fool you...right? RIGHT?
 
http://www.ccleaner.com/

It has the ability to change what launches at startup. Chances are most of the unwanted things you have running can be stopped from launching at startup, so give this thing a look.
 
If you are unsure of something running Adaware is the best option, usually it will find everything and get rid of it.

Whoever has those 43 processes you are probably ok. I simply don't understand why you need to be running apache (as that comes with a bunch of services on its own) all the time. If you have any old computers sitting around I personally like to install my web server there so it is separete from my main machine.
 
i once had an svchost virus , atleast i thought it was a virus , it wouldnt let me open any programs up or anything, evenutally just formatted :)
 
Server software. So your PC can be used as a server basiclly.
 
i have a maximum of 18 processes running. XP has been tweaked to run as fast as possible, and it does just that.
 
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