What are top level processes on Process Explorer on Windows 8? Why Firefox.exe is showing inside explorer.exe?

Process Explorer lists processes in a tree structure to represent the relation of which process is invoked by which process. The top level processes are processes invoked by system boot program.

Here is a list of top level processes on a Windows 8 computer:

1. System Idle Process - A dummy process, which represents idle time of CPU resources.

2. System - The operating system process, which keeps all parts of the computer running together.

3. csrss.exe - The Client/Server Runtime Subsystem process, which is mainly responsible for Win32 console handling and GUI shutdown.

3. wininit.exe - The Windows Start-Up Application process, which runs right after the system started to launch all service processes and startup programs.

4. explorer.exe - The Windows Explorer process, which represents the desktop interface. This is where can launch your applications like Firefox.

5. winlogon.exe - The Windows Logon Application process, which is responsible for handling the secure attention sequence, loading the user profile on logon, and optionally locking the computer when a screensaver is running.

6. AdobeARM.exe - The Adobe Reader and Acrobat Manager process, which manages Adobe applications on your computer. It should be inside wininit.exe, because it was launched as startup program. But somehow it is listed as a top level process.

Here is a picture of top level processes listed on Process Explorer for a Windows 8 computer:

 

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