Host process for Windows services. What is this: the basic concepts

Anyone who uses different versions of Windows on a job invariably encounters the presence of incomprehensible services on the system that are marked as a host process for Windows services . What is it, we now try to understand the example of the three main processes. In passing, recommendations will be given on the elimination of some problems.

What is a host process?

To begin with, in the broadest sense, the host process defines a specialized intermediate (platform) that is responsible for the interaction of the computer system, hardware, programs and their components with the user.

Today, there are many such processes, often hidden from the user's eyes. For the correct operation of any component (s) of the system, a specific host process is used for Windows services. What can it be in the "operating system"? It is a tool for launching programs and applications, both manually invoked by the user, and those that can not be started in the standard way, or additional components must be included to run them.

Without delving into the jungle of the principles of the operation of all system processes, let us consider the three most known and most commonly used ones. These are the services of Svchost, Rundll32 and Taskhost. By the way, it is with them that there are a lot of problems associated with an unreasonably heavy load on the CPU and RAM.

Service Svchost.exe

It is the primary system host for Windows services. What is it, let's see.

Previously, say, even in versions of Windows XP, this service was responsible solely for network connections, but over time it was transformed into a single process, due to which additional components of the "operating system" or user applications are launched, due to which, in theory, the consumption of resources Processor and "RAM". In other words, one service is responsible for the simultaneous launch of several programs or their components.

After the system is booted, there are at least four of these services in the "process tree" of such services. As soon as a program is started in the user's session, it immediately appears in the Task Manager as an active application, and in the process tree as a service, but with a note in the description that the user process is running. Naturally, if there are problems with system resources, it can be terminated or disabled. In some cases, this can be a virus, then it is better to use anti-virus software to check the system.

Host Process Windows Rundll32.exe

Rundll32 is also a system service, but it is solely responsible for launching the software components represented in the system as 32-bit dynamic components (libraries with the .dll file extension), which are not started in the usual way (like EXE files).

Such a process reads the executable program code in the library and initiates its launch (already by the type of the executable file).

Naturally, here also there are failures that occur most often with damage to the Rundll32.exe file itself or infection by its viruses and malicious codes. You can fix this situation from the Windows Recovery Console , located on the original installation disk, or again check the system for threats.

Process Taskhost.exe

Now about the Taskhost service. And it is also a host process for Windows services. What is it in a broader sense? In fact, it turns out that this service is like a duplicate to the first two, but it is responsible only for running applications and programs that differ in the type of the executable file, but only with the architecture of 32 bits.

In simpler terms, in the same 64-bit version of the Windows 7 operating system, applications or dynamic libraries (32-bit architecture) are run using the Taskhost process. As practice shows, it can be safely disconnected, since applications of this kind can also be invoked by the services described above. What is noteworthy: such a shutdown on the system's performance will not affect, but it will free up some of the system resources used.