shellmon.exe task purpose and description:

shellmon.exe was most likely installed by you, however it is possible this may arrive as preinstalled software also. Always verify this is in the proper folder as shown below, as spyware and viruses may sometimes be similiar names located in other folders (they do this in an attempt to fool you). This shellmon.exe program is used with AOL, and AOL does come preinstalled. It is also part of the free aol client software in version 9.0 and later. Anyone who has America Online ISP client software running will see this in their task list. This file is considered safe and is not virus or spywrae related. (See the details below for the actual location of this file.)

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

File type:
This is an executable program.

Where is this file and folder located on my computer?
C:\Program Files\AOL 9.1\shellmon.exe is the disk location for this file.

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, shellmon.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 shellmon.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!