But what are they FOR?

[berniel]

I'm probably not alone - or the first - to ask this. I've tried looking on 'the web' for answers, but some of them leave me even more confused.

 

I've noticed (increasingly of late) that when I try to access some sites - especially those that offer streaming (like football sites) they take an AGE to load. I think that a lot of it is down to them all being subscribed to the dreaded Facebook which seems to want to load all of ITS crap before clearing the way to what you really want.

 

But also I've noticed that a couple of processes seem to take up an inordinate amount of Mem usage when I go investigating through Windows Task Manager.

 

Main culprits are MsMpEng.exe and svchost.exe. Just what are these FOR? and can I do without them?

[Starbuck]

Hi berniel

 

can I do without them?

Quick answer is No... you can't do without them.

They are legit.

MsMpEng.exe is related to Windows Defender.

svchost.exe ... this one takes a bit more explaining....

It is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries.

or put another way... Microsoft have basically moved all of the functionality from internal Windows services into .dll files instead of .exe files.

But you can't launch a .dll file directly from windows, it needs to be loaded up from a running executable.

This is the reason for svchost.exe.

You may see multiple copies of svchost.exe running...... this is normal.

M$ couldn't add all the windows .dll files to one copy of svchost.exe, because if that failed.... the whole system fails.

So one instance of svchost.exe might load the services related to the firewall. Another svchost.exe instance might run all the services related to the user interface, and so on.

 

That said, there is malware that will disguise it self as svchost.exe.

This will give you some idea:

http://www.systemlookup.com/search.php?type=filename&client=malwaresearch-ff&search=svchost.exe

 

The entries with a X against them are bad ones.

 

I hope that explains things a bit for you.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Starbuck

[berniel]

Thanks, Starbuck

 

I'll have a wade through and see if I'm a victim!

[Starbuck]

I've noticed (increasingly of late) that when I try to access some sites - especially those that offer streaming (like football sites) they take an AGE to load. I think that a lot of it is down to them all being subscribed to the dreaded Facebook which seems to want to load all of ITS crap before clearing the way to what you really want.

Let's not forget that you are running Windows XP.

Your temp folder may be clogged up.

You may be short on Ram memory.

Could one of lots of things.....

 

If you want us to take a look at your system reports and advise further, just shout out.