[Ham-Computers] Problem with SVCHOST.EXE on an XP Machine

[Ron Youvan]

   Robert WA5CAB Downs wrote:

> I still run XP on one of our machines for various reasons.  I accidentally
> discovered an OS problem this morning.  I started Task Manager to check free
> ram and noticed that although nothing was doing anything, the CPU
> Utilization was steady at 50%.  A little checking revealed that it was being caused
> by one of the two running copies of svchost.exe belonging to SYSTEM.  Has
> anyone encountered this before?  And if so, what was the fix (short of
> attempting to reinstall the OS, which I'm not even sure is possible anymore)?

   As operating systems became more complex Microsoft decided to run 
more software functionality from a dynamic link library (DLL) interface. 
However DLLs are unable to launch themselves and require at least one 
executable program, i.e. svchost.exe, is needed to bridge between the 
library process and the operating system.

   To this LINUX user it looks like a good thing.
-- 
   Ron  KA4INM - Youvan's corollary:
                 Every action results in unwanted side effects.