Svchost Viewer Shows Exactly What Each svchost.exe Instance is Doing
One of the most popular articles on this site over the last year has been our must-read feature explaining svchost.exe and why it's running, and now there's an even easier way to see what's going on behind all of those svchost processes in Task Manager.
The Svchost Viewer is a small application that lists all of the current svchost.exe instances, shows how much memory each one is using and what services are running beneath it. For the uninitiated, svchost.exe is an underlying Windows component responsible for Windows services (read our full guide for more).
Using Svchost Viewer
The cool thing about Svchost Viewer is it requires no installation and can run directly off your USB flash drive, coming in handy when troubleshooting. Just double-click on the application to launch, and then click Yes when prompted whether to get the data.
After taking a few moments to complete the scan you will be presented with the number of svchost.exe instances running along with the service name, description, memory usage, and program path.
This application is a great little tool to see what's really going on in your computer. Svchost Viewer is open source, requires the .NET 2.0 framework and should work on XP (SP2), Vista and Windows 7.
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Ok, this is awesome. I hate having svchosts running and reportedly using up tons of my RAM. I rarely know what they are. Now I can figure out what these pesky processes are doing. Thanks The Geek!
Hmmm, this is an interesting little tool. Since it works with XP, do you think it would work on Server 2003? This would be wicked awesome on our terminal server.
@jeffs3rd:
Yep, it works on Server 2003 as long as you have .net 2.0 framework installed.
This tool is unnecessary. Task Manager on Vista shows you the services by process on the Services tab and Sysinternals Process Explorer, which runs on XP and higher, has shown the services running in svchosts for many years. You can see them in the tooltip that appears when you move the mouse over a process name and on the Services tab of the process properties dialog.
@Mark
Nice to see you reading our site.
If you read the article linked in the first paragraph, I have previously explained how to do exactly what you are talking about - using Process Explorer or Vista Task Manager to figure out what svchost.exe is doing. I even explained how to use the command line.
This application is simply an alternate way to view those processes, and is arguably easier to use for this specific purpose. Personally I'd use Process Explorer, but we like to give people options, it's up to them what they choose.
Hi,
I got this information and it is a litle scary…
Can I stop it from running for ever?
Terminal Services
Allows multiple users to be connected interactively to a machine as well as the display of desktops and applications to remote computers. The underpinning of Remote Desktop (including RD for Administrators), Fast User Switching, Remote Assistance, and Terminal Server.
Program path :
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost -k DComLaunch
Really helpful…!!….Thanks
Why do folks insist on reinventing the wheel? Mark Russinovich already wrote a magnificent freeware program called Process Explorer. It does everything Svchost Viewer can do…10 times better.
"It does everything Svchost Viewer can do…10 times better."
That isn't quite true.
Svchost viewer will display all the svchost services in a list with one click to view them.
Process Explorer will display all processes and require a double click on the process and a click of the services tab to see a description of the service.
So if your goal is to quickly view all the services running under an svchost process then svchost viewer would be the fastest way to do it.
Sure you may only save a few seconds but sometimes even a few seconds saved can save a lot of time if need to know something quickly.
Just because Process Explorer is good enough for most that doesn't another program for viewing svchost processes is useless for all people.
"Process Explorer will display all processes and require a double click on the process and a click of the services tab to see a description of the service."
That's not quite true: as I mentioned in my previous post, just move the mouse over the svchost image name in the process tree and you'll see the list of services running inside it in a tooltip.
I suppose my usage of the word description and list was too vague.
What I meant is this:
For lists, Process Explorer will only display one list with the services running under one of the svchost processes at a time when the mouse is over a svchost.exe process while Svchost Viewer on the other hand will display all the services running under all the svchosts at once in one big list.
For description, it says what the service does like for "Base Filtering Service" the description is "[…] a service that manages firewall and Internet Protocol security (IPsec) policies and implements user mode filtering."
It's not a big deal I just prefer the way svchost lists things as it's more like a report. I have yet to find a way with Process Explorer to generate a report of services are running grouped by process, with a description listed under each.
Svchost View just happens to be closer to that but still has a few problems like being limited to only Svchost processes and requiring a click to show a description.
Now that I think about it, the best thing to do would be to send a suggestion for improvement to the author(s) of Process Explorer which I probably don't need to do now as you are one of the main authors of Process Explorer. Which is a very good program already, it just doesn't seem to do everything I want out of a Process viewer though it comes close.
With the greatest of respect, Mr Russinovich, Oxford University Press still publish concise and pocket dictionaries even though every single word in them is already in the complete OED. Your program does much more than this, but this does have a simplicity that would make it easier for someone with lower level skills to use. Horses for courses: if, say, you had to find out over the telephone what svchost.exe was doing on my elderly mum's computer, you might find this one suitable.
I love this application it shows me what i want to see without all the clutter all the information i need in one spot rather then clicking back and forth
Props to you sir keep up the good work
I tried both tools on my machine. And here are my observations.
1) Task Manager is showing me there are 7 instances of SVChost.exe
2) Process Explorer is showing me 7 instances of svchost.exe are running
3) svchost viewer is telling me that there is NO svchost processes are running on my machine.
With my knowledge Windows XP pc will have a minimum of two or three svchost processes even if you run it in safe mode.
So, at this point I find Process Explorer is the one to go.
Any tips to get the svchost viewer working would be greatly helpful.
Thanks in advance,
@sk
I didi the same thing you did, on Windows xp with SP3, .net3.5SP1 and svchost viewer Ver. 0.3.0.0
The results are the same in Task Manager, Process Explorer and svchost viewer.
oh, and running from a USB
Good alternative,
Thanks
This is all fine and dandy, but just what is the svchost.exe and do I need to have any of them running. I have 6 running on my machine and when I run the mouse over them, nothing happens. I am using XP Pro.
Never mind Geek.. Missed the link explaining it all.. Went to it and read it. I am still dense I guess because I still dont know what to disable..LOL Thanks tho..