I can't figure out why Windows keeps loading SVCHOST.EXE five times at startup. Checking other forums i've had a couple people suggest a service pack update from Windows would fix the problem, but I installed all the updates and it hasn't changed...There is mention of PATH: to a copy of Maya in my programs folder when I check the starup info for the process, but i'm not just not making any connections....

Microsoft is no help. I can't even get a straight answer out of those dweebs...Anyone have any ideas?.

I do believe that this is normal, well as normal as you can get with Windows that is

As for why it's loaded I've not figured that out myself so if somebody else has info on this please post it

I currently have four of them running and all are taking various amounts of memory. Since I have a gig installed I don't worry too much about this, not sure what kind of a performance hit it may make, but it doesn't seem to hurt my machine any.

Multiple svchost running is normal and expected.

According to MS KB article http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314056, "Svchost.exe is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries (DLLs)."

Basically, it is a host for multiple sub-services so that you don't have lots or background services running (like Windows NT 4.0), you just have a couple (like Windows 2000 and XP).

If you reduce the number of background DLL services, the number of svchosts *should* reduce (it might not as well...this is MS after all)

Thanks for the info, but the thing I find disturbing about this is that there were was never previously any instances of these programs being loaded, and I hadn't changed anything on my computer prior to when they started popping up. Also, three of the SVCHOST proggies don't even show up in the Windows task manager, so i'm wondering if they're hiding because they don't want to be found easily....Firewall keeps asking me if I want to allow them access to the Internet but I keep blocking them because i've yet to determine just what the hell they are there for... Makes me wonder if blocking them is causing SVCHOST to bust loose and keep running duplicates in an effort to make it work.

Is there any means of tracing back their purpose?....My knowledge of the intricacies of Windows is limited...Thanks.

Well you're no alone about not knowing much about the intricacies of Windows. I'm no expert myself.

My understanding is that there should aways be at least one svchost running, depending on your setup.

However, it would probably be useful to find out what sub-services are running in each svchost. You can do this by running "tasklist /svc" in a command prompt window.

It's possible that windows has screwed up and is running the same sub-services in multiple svchosts. Some of these sub-services need to be able to access the net (otherwise you can't access the net). Some, however, just want to access the net to, who knows, talk with MS or whatever.