What is the "svchost.exe (Host Process for Windows Services)" system executable program on Windows Server 2008? I want to know how svchost.exe is used to host services.

"svchost.exe (Host Process for Windows Services)" is a Windows Server 2008 system executable program that is used to launch and host multiple Windows services.

One advantage of using svchost.exe to host services is called shared service processes, where a number of services can share a process in order to reduce resource consumption. Grouping multiple services into a single process conserves computing resources.

If a service is configured to be launched and hosted by svchost.exe, it will need two piece of information:

• Process Group - Provided as the "-k" parameter at the svchost.exe command line. It identifies which svchost.exe process this service should be joining.
• DLL File - Provided as a registry setting associated with this service. It tells svchost.exe where to find the DLL file that delivers this service.

For example, service "CertPropSvc (Certificate Propagation)" is configured to be launched and hosted by svchost.exe. It has the following settings:

• Process Group ("-k netsvcs" provided at command line) - "Certificate Propagation" is hosted under the svchost.exe (netsvcs) process.
• DLL File ("C:\Windows\system32\certprop.dll" provided in registry) - "Certificate Propagation" is delivered by the code in certprop.dll.

So if "CertPropSvc (Certificate Propagation)" service is started, certprop.dll will be loaded to system and hosted by a svchost.exe process labeled as "netsvcs", together with other services in this group.

Detailed information on "svchost.exe" program:

Name: svchost.exe
Location: C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe
Description: Host Process for Windows Services
File version: 6.1.7600.16385
Size: 26.5 KB (27,136 bytes)
Modified: Monday, July 13, 2009, 9:39:46 PM

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