Starting with Windows XP, and then Vista, 7 and 8, many users are faced with the operation of an inexplicable taskhost.exe process. Most users have no idea what taskhost.exe process is currently running. In addition, sometimes the load on the central processor can reach almost 100%. But now we will find out whether it is possible to disable the program, and how to do it so as not to harm the entire system.
Taskhost.exe process: what is it?
Finding a detailed description of the process itself is not so easy, not to mention the principles of operation of this system service, run as a user in a local session with the LOCAL SERVICE, SYSTEM attribute, or an attribute that displays the username.
No, this is not a user process in the sense that it is started by a user, it is a system service, but it starts at each specific user loginunder your accounts.
So, the user observes in the "Task Manager" the running active process taskhost.exe. What is it from the point of view of the system itself? According to Microsoft's brief description, this service is responsible for running 32-bit applications in a form other than standard.exe executable files. The process itself is similar to the services svchost.exe and rundll.32.exe, since it is able to simultaneously launch user processes and local session services with the extraction of executable codes and commands located in dynamic libraries of the.dll format. It is not clear, however, why it was necessary to create a duplicate service, but, as they say, Windows developers know better.
Why is the taskhost.exe process using CPU?
In theory, if you look at it, the process itself is indeed a system one, although it is launched in each user session. Based on the foregoing, it is easy 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 (and does not “hanging” in the process tree in the form of several services like svchost.exe). In addition, do not forget that the rundll32.exe service also accesses the libraries, but, apparently, it is the taskhost.exe process that has priority. What does this mean for the system? Yes, only that very often there is an unforeseen conflict between processes that seek to be the first to load this or that library.
In addition, many experts linkincreased consumption of system resources due to the fact that the process itself contains the activated RacSysprepGeneralize function, located in the RasEngn.dll dynamic library, which belongs to the standard Windows Task Scheduler.
Can I disable the taskhost.exe service?
Now a few words about whether it is possible to do without this annoying process in the system. Yes, you can. However, it will not work to disable the service by force in the "Task Manager". Rather, you can complete the process, but, as practice shows, after a while it will “resurrect” again.
Methods for shutting down a process
First of all, you can try to disable the "Task Scheduler" itself. But this does not always help, because the above RacSysprepGeneralize function will still work.
To get rid of it, you need to enter the "Task Scheduler Menu" section, called from the "Control Panel" with a sequential selection of the "Administration" and "Task Scheduler" sections, and then repeat the sequential transition through the "Microsoft" sections, then "Windows" and "RAC". Now in the "View" menu you will need to specify the display of hidden icons, and then use the right click on the RACTask or RACAgent service (for Windows 7 and Vista, respectively). In the submenu that appears, select the "Disable" command, and then end the taskhost.exe process again in the "Task Manager".
If it's a virus
Not always, however, such a service can be classified as a system component. In some situations in the process treeanother suspicious service (or two or more with the same or non-system attributes) taskhost.exe may also be present. What is it in this case?
A common computer virus that will need to be removed or cured by the original file using stationary anti-virus software or using anti-virus utilities that are loaded even before the start of the OS. But, as a rule, such situations are extremely rare.
Result
So we looked at the taskhost.exe process, how to remove it or get rid of malicious threats. In general, the first way to disable the components of the "Task Scheduler" is the most common, and without any intervention in the system registry or in the operation of the "OS" as a whole. As practice shows, disabling this service does not affect the system, but it frees up additional resources.
However, as it is already clear, the above described actions to disable the taskhost.exe process must be performed only when accessing a computer terminal with administrator rights. Otherwise, this will have no effect.
Roughly speaking, the user will not only not be able to disable the corresponding services, but in some cases will not even be able to enter the "Control Panel" to make any changes, because sometimes access can be blocked so that the "Panel control" in the Start menu is not even displayed, not to mention the fact that it will not work from the command line, no matter how hard you try.
