My system is bogging down, and Task Manager indicates that "svchost.exe" is using 95+ percent of the CPU. What is it doing? And is there a way to make this run in the background without stalling other tasks?1 person needs an answerI do too

It could be that your system is afflicted with malicious software. Sometimes malicious software will hide behind a svchost.exe Process.Start troubleshooting by first at least making an effort to eliminate the chances of malicious software, then fix whatever issue remain when the scans run clean.No matter what else you are using for malicious software protection and removal:Download, install, update and do a full scan with these free malware detection programs:Malwarebytes (MBAM): http://malwarebytes.org/SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS): http://www.superantispyware.com/They can be uninstalled later if desired.If you still have issues when the scans run clean, then to eliminate questions and guessing, please provide additional information about your system.What is your system make and model?What is your XP Version and Service Pack?Describe your current antivirus and anti malware situation: McAfee, Symantec, Norton, Spybot, AVG, Avira!, MSE, Panda, Trend Micro, CA, Defender, ZoneAlarm, PC Tools, Comodo, etc.Click Start, Run and in the box enter:msinfo32Click OK, and when the System Summary info appears, click Edit, Select All, Copy and then paste the information back here so we can see some details about your system.There will be some personal information (like System Name and User Name), and whatever appears to be private information to you, just delete it from the pasted information.You might be able to get some clues using about what is going with your svchost Processes using Task Manager and maybe figure it out.You will always be able to figure out what is going with your svchost Processes if you use Process Explorer.Download Process Explorer so you can see what is "really" running on your system, especially behind those multiple svchosts Processes you see running in Task Manager. Download Process Explorer from here:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspxYou'll like Process Explorer when you get the hang of it. Process Explorer is the Windows Task Manager on steroids. Process Explorer installs nothing so it will not slow your system down since it only runs on demand. Process Explorer may look a little intimidating at first since it presents so much information, but you will start to get to like the way it works when you are looking for performance problems. You can even tell PE that you want it to be your new default "Task Manager" from now on. You can still run the original Task Manger too.Once you get Process Explorer running, expand the columns, drag the corners of the display to make it bigger, etc. so you can see the most information as possible in the window. Now you can really see everything that is running on the system.Here is a screenshot of my poor system when I use Process Explorer:http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2567/processexplorer.pngThe CPU column is usually the most interesting to get started with performance issues - who is using the most? It is okay and normal to have multiple svchost processes running. Important XP Services are actaully running under the svchost Processes. Sometimes there is just one XP Service running under a svchost Process, sometime there are several XP Services running under a svchost Process.Sometimes malicious software will hide behind a svchost Process since the malicious software knows you will not be able to spot it in Task Manager. It will hide behind a svchost.exe Process to fool you, but you can outsmart it.Malicious software can also disguise itself to appear to be a legitimate XP Process or it could hide under/behind other Processes that you see running in Task Manager so you cannot see it running.The malicious software would like to fool you into thinking that you need to use a System Restore Point, perform a Repair Install or reinstall your XP from scratch when you really don't have to.When looking at the display in Process Explorer, you would like the most CPU to be associated with System Idle Process. That is the "free time" on your system so the more free time it has, the better. If you look at the performance graphs and see red spikes (or not) double click the graph in the top left corner to display the usage graph. Hover the mouse over any spikes to see what causes them. Even if the spike has already scrolled past in the display, you can still hover the mouse over the spike to see what caused it. You can also just wait for a spike to occur and then see what caused the spike.To help understand your svchost processes and what is running beneath them, read this article and you will be smarter than the average bear:http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial129.htmlThen with some Googling, you can look at each thing running in Process Explorer and behind your svchost processes and see what it is and decide if your configuration needs it or not and then decide what to do about it. If you think you have one svchost.exe Process that have run amok, using Process Explorer, you can right click that offensive svchost, Properties and on the Services and Threads tab you can see what is running under it. There is a CPU column that will need widening (make the column wider) so you can see CPU. Perhaps you can spot which background process is consuming so much CPU under the svchost.exe process. Look around under the svchost processes and you will find the problem. You can also see what is running under every svchost just by hovering your mouse over the svchost.exe process. Some of them will just have one things running under them and some will have several things (hopefully all legitimate XP services) and some will have a lot of things. If you have a svchost Process that is afflicted, what is running under your afflicted one?No running process should defy reasonable explanation.First, see what you can find out using Process Explorer and then if nothing is obvious, seek additional guidance.Do, or do not. There is no try.I decided to save up points for a new puppy instead of a pony!

It could be that your system is afflicted with malicious software. Sometimes malicious software will hide behind a svchost.exe Process.Start troubleshooting by first at least making an effort to eliminate the chances of malicious software, then fix whatever issue remain when the scans run clean.No matter what else you are using for malicious software protection and removal:Download, install, update and do a full scan with these free malware detection programs:Malwarebytes (MBAM): http://malwarebytes.org/SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS): http://www.superantispyware.com/They can be uninstalled later if desired.If you still have issues when the scans run clean, then to eliminate questions and guessing, please provide additional information about your system.What is your system make and model?What is your XP Version and Service Pack?Describe your current antivirus and anti malware situation: McAfee, Symantec, Norton, Spybot, AVG, Avira!, MSE, Panda, Trend Micro, CA, Defender, ZoneAlarm, PC Tools, Comodo, etc.Click Start, Run and in the box enter:msinfo32Click OK, and when the System Summary info appears, click Edit, Select All, Copy and then paste the information back here so we can see some details about your system.There will be some personal information (like System Name and User Name), and whatever appears to be private information to you, just delete it from the pasted information.You might be able to get some clues using about what is going with your svchost Processes using Task Manager and maybe figure it out.You will always be able to figure out what is going with your svchost Processes if you use Process Explorer.Download Process Explorer so you can see what is "really" running on your system, especially behind those multiple svchosts Processes you see running in Task Manager. Download Process Explorer from here:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspxYou'll like Process Explorer when you get the hang of it. Process Explorer is the Windows Task Manager on steroids. Process Explorer installs nothing so it will not slow your system down since it only runs on demand. Process Explorer may look a little intimidating at first since it presents so much information, but you will start to get to like the way it works when you are looking for performance problems. You can even tell PE that you want it to be your new default "Task Manager" from now on. You can still run the original Task Manger too.Once you get Process Explorer running, expand the columns, drag the corners of the display to make it bigger, etc. so you can see the most information as possible in the window. Now you can really see everything that is running on the system.Here is a screenshot of my poor system when I use Process Explorer:http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2567/processexplorer.pngThe CPU column is usually the most interesting to get started with performance issues - who is using the most? It is okay and normal to have multiple svchost processes running. Important XP Services are actually running under the svchost Processes. Sometimes there is just one XP Service running under a svchost Process, sometime there are several XP Services running under a svchost Process.Sometimes malicious software will hide behind a svchost Process since the malicious software knows you will not be able to spot it in Task Manager. It will hide behind a svchost.exe Process to fool you, but you can outsmart it.Malicious software can also disguise itself to appear to be a legitimate XP Process or it could hide under/behind other Processes that you see running in Task Manager so you cannot see it running.The malicious software would like to fool you into thinking that you need to use a System Restore Point, perform a Repair Install or reinstall your XP from scratch when you really don't have to.When looking at the display in Process Explorer, you would like the most CPU to be associated with System Idle Process. That is the "free time" on your system so the more free time it has, the better. If you look at the performance graphs and see red spikes (or not) double click the graph in the top left corner to display the usage graph. Hover the mouse over any spikes to see what causes them. Even if the spike has already scrolled past in the display, you can still hover the mouse over the spike to see what caused it. You can also just wait for a spike to occur and then see what caused the spike.To help understand your svchost processes and what is running beneath them, read this article and you will be smarter than the average bear:http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial129.htmlThen with some Googling, you can look at each thing running in Process Explorer and behind your svchost processes and see what it is and decide if your configuration needs it or not and then decide what to do about it. If you think you have one svchost.exe Process that have run amok, using Process Explorer, you can right click that offensive svchost, Properties and on the Services and Threads tab you can see what is running under it. There is a CPU column that will need widening (make the column wider) so you can see CPU. Perhaps you can spot which background process is consuming so much CPU under the svchost.exe process. Look around under the svchost processes and you will find the problem. You can also see what is running under every svchost just by hovering your mouse over the svchost.exe process. Some of them will just have one things running under them and some will have several things (hopefully all legitimate XP services) and some will have a lot of things. If you have a svchost Process that is afflicted, what is running under your afflicted one?No running process should defy reasonable explanation.First, see what you can find out using Process Explorer and then if nothing is obvious, seek additional guidance.Do, or do not. There is no try.I decided to save up points for a new puppy instead of a pony!