Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

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Abnormally high CPU usage

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from svchost.exe [SOLVED]
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LE LeahVazquez asked on April 12, 2012

Occasionally after windows automatically updates, my laptop will

restart with abnormally high CPU usage. I checked my processes
and found that "svchost.exe*32 - SYSTEM - winrscmde" appeared to
be using most of the CPU.

When attempting to "Go to Service(s)" no service was highlighted.

As a last ditch effort in a long list of fixes I tried(including scanning

my pc with multiple malware and virus detection programs, restart-
ing the computer again and trying a manual fix I found in a forum
somewhere else)

I simply chose svchost.exe*32, then clicked "Open file location" and

double clicked the svchost application, opening a new sv-
chost.exe*32 and
ending the old process and it seems to have solved my problem for
the time being, but I can't help but wonder what caused this prob-
lem in the

first place?
[EDIT]: I fixed my problem another way, apparently somehow a
rootkit was causing the problem?
It started out as a problem with all regular google sites, ads and ser-
vices not being able to be displayed on my browser.
I searched the web for answers and found that someone else had
the exact same problem and used a combination of Rkill and TDSKill
executable programs to stop malware processes and remove rootk-
its. I never thought of this before because i had no idea what a
rootkit was.
After rebooting google worked fine and i found that the particular
service host.exe file that had been causing me so much trouble was

1 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

Answer

Tauheedul Ali replied on April 12, 2012

Hello Leah, yes svchost.exe isn't always associated with viruses, it is

a windows feature responsible for loading shared dll's for other ap-
plications to use.

There are ways to find out which services are hogging the resources.
Take a look at the guide below...

What is svchost.exe And Why Is It Running?

You are no doubt reading this article because you are wondering
why on earth there are nearly a dozen processes running with the
namesvchost.exe. You cant kill them, and you dont remember
starting them so what are they?

So What Is It?
According to Microsoft: svchost.exe is a generic host process name
for services that run from dynamic-link libraries. Could we have
that in english please?
Some time ago, Microsoft started moving all of the functionality
from internal Windows services into .dll files instead of .exe files.
From a programming perspective this makes more sense for
reusability but the problem is that you cant launch a .dll file di-
rectly from Windows, it has to be loaded up from a running exe-
cutable (.exe). Thus the svchost.exe process was born.

Why Are There So Many svchost.exes Running?

If youve ever taken a look at the Services section in control panel
you might notice that there are a Lot of services required by Win-
dows. If every single service ran under a single svchost.exe instance,
a failure in one might bring down all of Windows so they are sepa-
rated out.
Those services are organized into logical groups, and then a single
svchost.exe instance is created for each group. For instance, one sv-
chost.exe instance runs the 3 services related to the firewall. Another
svchost.exe instance might run all the services related to the user in-
terface, and so on.

So What Can I Do About It?

You can trim down unneeded services by disabling or stopping the
services that dont absolutely need to be running. Additionally, if
you are noticing very heavy CPU usage on a single svchost.exe in-
stance you can restart the services running under that instance.
The biggest problem is identifying what services are being run on a

2 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

particular svchost.exe instance well cover that below.

If you are curious what were talking about, just open up Task Man-
ager and check the Show processes from all users box:

Checking From the Command Line (Vista or XP Pro)

If you want to see what services are being hosted by a particular sv-
chost.exe instance, you can use the tasklist command from the com-
mand prompt in order to see the list of services.

tasklist /SVC

The problem with using the command line method is that you dont
necessarily know what these cryptic names refer to.

Checking in Task Manager in Vista

You can right-click on a particular svchost.exe process, and then
choose the Go to Service option.

3 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

This will flip over to the Services tab, where the services running un-
der that svchost.exe process will be selected:

The great thing about doing it this way is that you can see the real
name under the Description column, so you can choose to disable
the service if you dont want it running.

Using Process Explorer in Vista or XP

You can use the excellentProcess Explorerutility from Micro-
soft/Sysinternals to see what services are running as a part of a sv-
chost.exe process.
Hovering your mouse over one of the processes will show you a
popup list of all the services:

4 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

Or you can double-click on a svchost.exe instance and select the

Services tab, where you can choose to stop one of the services if
you choose.

Disabling Services
Open up Services from the administrative tools section of Control
Panel, or typeservices.mscinto the start menu search or run box.
Find the service in the list that youd like to disable, and either dou-
ble-click on it or right-click and choose Properties.

5 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

Change the Startup Type to Disabled, and then click the Stop button
to immediately stop it.

You could also use the command prompt to disable the service if
you choose. In this command trkwks is the Service name from the
above dialog, but if you go back to the tasklist command at the be-
ginning of this article youll notice you can find it there as well.

sc config trkwks start= disabled

Source: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-
vista/what-is-svchostexe-and-why-is-it-running/

Software Developer

511 people found this helpful

6 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

Helpful Reply

Gerry C J Cornell replied on April 12, 2012

Community Moderator , Wiki Author , , ,

Leah
Do you have an HP Printer? If yes what model?

Gerry
Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, England
Enquire Plan Execute

17 people found this helpful

Helpful Reply

LE LeahVazquez replied on April 14, 2012

In reply to Gerry C J Cornell's post on April 12, 2012

Leah
Do you have an HP Printer? If yes what model?

No :( I don't have a printer or scanner, etc.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful Reply

7 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

Answer

LE LeahVazquez replied on May 26, 2012

In reply to Tauheedul Ali's post on April 12, 2012

I fixed my problem another way, apparently somehow a rootkit was

causing the problem? It started out as a problem with all regular
google sites, ads and services not being able to be displayed on my
browser. I searched the web for answers and found that someone
else had the exact same problem and used a combination of Rkill
and TDSKill executable programs to stop malware processes and re-
move rootkits.I never thought of this before because i had no idea
what a rootkit was. After rebooting google worked fine and i found
that the particular service host.exe file that had been causing me so
much trouble was gone and not running, also my computer runs
smoother than ever!

106 people found this helpful

Helpful Reply

HA hanhnguyens1404 replied on October 28, 2012

In reply to LeahVazquez's post on May 26, 2012

Hi Leah, I have the same problem, too and my teacher said it might
be caused by viruses or malwares or rootkits... I have so much trou-
ble with my laptop because it is too slow. Could you give me the
more detail instruction to resolve this problem? Thanks a lot!

13 people found this helpful

Helpful Reply

8 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

AM Ameixinhas replied on May 9, 2013

In reply to hanhnguyens1404's post on October 28, 2012

Hey. I had the same problem, downloaded a program called RKill

(www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/rkill/) and after I ran that
program I ran Spybot Search and Destroy (http://www.safer-net-
working.org/dl/).My computer hasnt had a 100%usage moment for
24 hours and that would happen every 5 or 10 minutes.

34 people found this helpful

Helpful Reply

HA hanhnguyens1404 replied on May 15, 2013

In reply to Ameixinhas's post on May 9, 2013

thank you, guy:)

2 people found this helpful

Helpful Reply

9 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

CH ChristianJarrell replied on December 9, 2013

In reply to LeahVazquez's post on May 26, 2012

I was having this same issue on windows 8.1.

I have a fairly Elite Gaming machine and I was getting a consistent
15% CPU usage from one of the Branches of SVCHOST.exe

Now after searching through all of my services for an hour i was

able to find out that it was svchost.exe that governs Windows Up-
date and a few firewall rules.

I thought, It's not like windows to have an auto update software that
would be causing me another 15 degrees and 15% on my machine,
:P

So simply I disabled auto updates and immediately my CPU went

back to 0% idle and she's cool again.

The problem for me with windows 8.1 was that the svchost.exe for
windows update is also linked with Superfetch, which is linked to
the Microsoft App Store.
So windows was trying to auto search for updates of my apps and
Regular windows updates, Trying to auto install them, and sending
notifications of this, and a 0.001 interval.

79 people found this helpful

Helpful Reply

10 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

DG DavidRogerio Girn replied on July 20, 2015

In reply to Ameixinhas's post on May 9, 2013

new location of program

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/rkill/dl/10/

never mind! This worked for a while but then came the problem

:(

4 people found this helpful

Helpful Reply

HA HardCoreCoder4C replied on October 9, 2015

In reply to DavidRogerio Girn's post on July 20, 2015

I observed this without installing any software between July and Oc-
tober... killing the svchost.exe twice brought up a windows message
"check your update settings". So it was related to update check or
whatsoever.

Yesterday I downloaded the Windows updates for last three months

and now the 100% problem is gone... adding a new problem that
my firefox doesn't open any link in a new tab or window any more.

17 people found this helpful

Helpful Reply

gone and not running, also my computer runs smoother than ever!

1600 people had this question

Me Too Reply Subscribe

Answer

11 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

Tauheedul Ali replied on April 12, 2012

Hello Leah, yes svchost.exe isn't always associated with viruses, it is

a windows feature responsible for loading shared dll's for other ap-
plications to use.

There are ways to find out which services are hogging the resources.
Take a look at the guide below...

What is svchost.exe And Why Is It Running?

You are no doubt reading this article because you are wondering
why on earth there are nearly a dozen processes running with the
namesvchost.exe. You cant kill them, and you dont remember
starting them so what are they?

So What Is It?
According to Microsoft: svchost.exe is a generic host process name
for services that run from dynamic-link libraries. Could we have
that in english please?
Some time ago, Microsoft started moving all of the functionality
from internal Windows services into .dll files instead of .exe files.
From a programming perspective this makes more sense for
reusability but the problem is that you cant launch a .dll file di-
rectly from Windows, it has to be loaded up from a running exe-
cutable (.exe). Thus the svchost.exe process was born.

Why Are There So Many svchost.exes Running?

If youve ever taken a look at the Services section in control panel
you might notice that there are a Lot of services required by Win-
dows. If every single service ran under a single svchost.exe instance,
a failure in one might bring down all of Windows so they are sepa-
rated out.
Those services are organized into logical groups, and then a single
svchost.exe instance is created for each group. For instance, one sv-
chost.exe instance runs the 3 services related to the firewall. Another
svchost.exe instance might run all the services related to the user in-
terface, and so on.

So What Can I Do About It?

You can trim down unneeded services by disabling or stopping the
services that dont absolutely need to be running. Additionally, if
you are noticing very heavy CPU usage on a single svchost.exe in-
stance you can restart the services running under that instance.
The biggest problem is identifying what services are being run on a
particular svchost.exe instance well cover that below.
If you are curious what were talking about, just open up Task Man-
ager and check the Show processes from all users box:

12 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

Checking From the Command Line (Vista or XP Pro)

If you want to see what services are being hosted by a particular sv-
chost.exe instance, you can use the tasklist command from the com-
mand prompt in order to see the list of services.

tasklist /SVC

The problem with using the command line method is that you dont
necessarily know what these cryptic names refer to.

Checking in Task Manager in Vista

You can right-click on a particular svchost.exe process, and then
choose the Go to Service option.

13 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

This will flip over to the Services tab, where the services running un-
der that svchost.exe process will be selected:

The great thing about doing it this way is that you can see the real
name under the Description column, so you can choose to disable
the service if you dont want it running.

Using Process Explorer in Vista or XP

You can use the excellentProcess Explorerutility from Micro-
soft/Sysinternals to see what services are running as a part of a sv-
chost.exe process.
Hovering your mouse over one of the processes will show you a
popup list of all the services:

14 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

Or you can double-click on a svchost.exe instance and select the

Services tab, where you can choose to stop one of the services if
you choose.

Disabling Services
Open up Services from the administrative tools section of Control
Panel, or typeservices.mscinto the start menu search or run box.
Find the service in the list that youd like to disable, and either dou-
ble-click on it or right-click and choose Properties.

15 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

Change the Startup Type to Disabled, and then click the Stop button
to immediately stop it.

You could also use the command prompt to disable the service if
you choose. In this command trkwks is the Service name from the
above dialog, but if you go back to the tasklist command at the be-
ginning of this article youll notice you can find it there as well.

sc config trkwks start= disabled

Source: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-
vista/what-is-svchostexe-and-why-is-it-running/

Software Developer

511 people found this helpful

16 17 25/10/2016 07:57
Abnormally high CPU usage from svchost.exe [SOLVED] - Microsoft... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-perf...

Helpful Reply

Answer

LE LeahVazquez replied on May 26, 2012

In reply to Tauheedul Ali's post on April 12, 2012

I fixed my problem another way, apparently somehow a rootkit was

causing the problem? It started out as a problem with all regular
google sites, ads and services not being able to be displayed on my
browser. I searched the web for answers and found that someone
else had the exact same problem and used a combination of Rkill
and TDSKill executable programs to stop malware processes and re-
move rootkits.I never thought of this before because i had no idea
what a rootkit was. After rebooting google worked fine and i found
that the particular service host.exe file that had been causing me so
much trouble was gone and not running, also my computer runs
smoother than ever!

106 people found this helpful

Helpful Reply

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