Taskhost.exe: what is this process, can I get rid of it?

Starting with Windows XP, and then Vista, 7 and 8,many users are faced with the operation of the inexplicable taskhost.exe process. Most users have no idea what the taskhost.exe process is currently working on. In addition, sometimes the load on the central processor can reach almost 100%. But if we can disable the program, and how to do it, so as not to harm the entire system, we now find out.

The taskhost.exe process: what is it?

Find a detailed description of the process itselfso it's easy, not to mention the functioning of this system service, run as a user in a local session with the attribute LOCAL SERVICE, SYSTEM or an attribute that displays the user's name.

No, this is not a user process in the sense that it is launched by the user, this is a system service, but it starts at each specific user input under their accounts.

So, the user watches in the "Task Manager"running the active taskhost.exe process. What is this from the point of view of the system itself? Based on a brief description of Microsoft Corporation, this service is responsible for launching 32-bit applications in a form different from standard executable files with the extension .exe. The process itself is similar to the services svchost.exe and rundll.32.exe, because it is able to simultaneously run user processes and local session services with extraction of executable codes and commands located in dynamic libraries of the .dll format. It's unclear, really, why it was necessary to create a duplicate service, but, as they say, Windows developers know better.

Why does the taskhost.exe process load the processor?

In theory, if you look at the process itselfIt is really a system one, although it runs in every user session. Based on the foregoing, it is not difficult to guess that the excessive load on the processor may be due to the fact that this service alone calls all registered processes from dynamic libraries (rather than "hangs" in the process tree in the form of several services like svchost.exe). In addition, we should not forget that the rundll32.exe service also attracts to libraries, but, apparently, the taskhost.exe process has priority. What does this mean for the system? But only that very often there is an unforeseen conflict between the processes that are trying to be the first to download a particular library.

In addition, many specialists associateincreased consumption of system resources so that the process itself contains the activated function RacSysprepGeneralize, located in the dynamic library RasEngn.dll, which is related to the standard "Task Scheduler" Windows.

Can I turn off the taskhost.exe service?

Now a few words about whether it is possible to do insystem without this annoying process. Yes, you can. However, you can not disable the service using the forced method in the "Task Manager". Rather, you can complete the process, but, as practice shows, after a while he will again "rise again."

Methods for disabling the process

First of all, you can try to disable the Task Scheduler itself. But this does not always help, because the above function RacSysprepGeneralize will still work.

To get rid of it, you must entersection "Job Scheduler Menu", called from the "Control Panel" with a sequential selection of the "Administration" and "Task Scheduler" sections, and then repeat the sequential move through the sections "Microsoft", then "Windows" and "RAC". Now, in the "View" menu, you need to specify the display of hidden icons, then use the right click on the service RACTask or RACAgent (for Windows 7 and Vista respectively). In the submenu that appears, select the "Disconnect" command, and then re-complete the taskhost.exe process in the "Task Manager".

If it's a virus

Not always, however, such a service can be consideredto system components. In some situations, another suspicious service (or two or more with the same or non-system attributes) taskhost.exe may be present in the process tree. What is it in this case?

A common computer virus that will need to bedelete or disinfect the original file using a stationary anti-virus software or using antivirus utilities that load before the start of the "operating system". But, as a rule, such situations are extremely rare.

The result

So we looked at the taskhost process.exe, how to remove it or get rid of malicious threats. In general, the first way to disconnect the components of the Task Scheduler is the most common, and without any intervention in the system registry or in the operation of the operating system as a whole. As practice shows, disabling this service on the system does not affect, but frees up additional resources.

However, as already understood, the above described actionsTo disable the taskhost.exe process, you only need to access the computer terminal with administrator rights. Otherwise, this action will not work.

Roughly speaking, the user not only can notdisable the appropriate services, but in some cases even fails to enter the "Control Panel" for making any changes, because sometimes access can be blocked so that the label "Control Panel" in the Start menu is not even displayed, let alone that you can not call it from the command line, no matter how hard you try.