svchost.exe task purpose and description:

svchost.exe is a program that would have arrived on your computer the day you purchased it. Always verify the exact disk location as shown below, since many spyware and virus writers attempt to fool you by using similiar or same names but locate the file in other folders. Svchost.exe is a program which is a critical windows program which monitors programs, manages dll's, and controls loading of system processes. You will find multiple occurances of this running. This will always be running and you cannot kill this task. This svchost.exe file is considered safe and is not spyware or virus related, however, make sure the file is not located at c:\svchost.exe, as many viruses and spyware programs have used this name to confuse you, and several viruses put this svchost name in your root directory which is not the proper location for this file. Also pay close attention that svchost is not spelled scvhost, as these are not the same but look so close its hard to notice! (See the details below for the actual location of this file.)

Actual process or task name: (You can view alphabetical task list here)
svchost.exe

File type:
This is an executable program.

Where is this file and folder located on my computer?
This program is located in your Windows\system32 folder, as in %SystemRoot%\System32\svchost.exe

General information:
Be aware that many tasks will be similiar names to existing tasks or processes. You can always view the running tasks on your computer by pressing ctrl-alt-del to view the windows "task manager", and then view the "processes" tab. This will show you all tasks running or currently active on your PC. Although this shows you all running tasks, it does not show dll file thats are loaded, as they get loaded as part of other processes. Many spyware writers attempt to hide their files on your computer, for example, svchost.exe may be intentionally misspelled to look like a similiar task, or spyware may be named very similiar to a Windows system task. The reason they do this is so you cannot easily recognize the name in your tasklist as I have mentioned above. Make sure always check the location of the file if you are concerned. You can always find the location of svchost.exe on your computer by using your Windows search options, but I will also try to list the file location of every file described on this website, so you can verify the correct location. You can view the entire tasklist directory with the link below.

View entire task list here!