kernel.exe task purpose and description:

This program is a visual basic trojan virus, and although this file name used to be part of windows many years ago, it is now part of the backdoor tojan. You can kill this file if found on your pc, and the location is shown below. You will find this in your registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices, so it always has a way to startup when you reboot. You can manually kill this trojan file, but remember that other files are often found with viruses, they are rarely just one file and that is also the case here. It is best to use software to remove this automatically, and if you want to manually cleanup your system then always be familiar with the registry and the startup locations where these files are found as you can identify all names there, and even random names as many of these use. (See the details below for the actual location of this file.)

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

File type:
This is an executable file.

Where is this file and folder located on my computer?
This trojan file can be found on your hard drive at c:\WINDOWS\system32\Kernel.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, kernel.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 kernel.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!