Archive for the 'EXEs' Category

Svchost.exe takes up 100% of the CPU

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

If your computer has been moving slow lately, particularly after you log in, it may be because of a problem with the Windows Automatic Updates client. To check for this, open Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Esc) and look in the Processes tab. Sort by CPU usage and see if svchost.exe is at the top - if so, the problem is almost certainly related to Windows Updates.

You may be wondering what svchost.exe is and what it has to do with Windows Updates. Svchost.exe is a Windows executable that most Windows operating system components use to run services. A service is any program that runs constantly (unlike regular applications that you open and close), has to register itself with Windows and is listed under Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services (switch to Classic View if you can’t find Administrative Tools). For example, whenever a program crashes you will see a dialog box pop up asking if you would like to send an error report to Microsoft. This “feature” is provided by Microsoft’s Error Reporting Service, which incidentally runs as svchost.exe.

The Windows Update client has two parts - one a stand-alone executable that runs when it’s time to check for updates (wuauclt.exe) and the Automatic Updates service that runs as svchost.exe. When you first start up your computer and log in, the stand-alone executable runs to check for updates but uses the service as well. This typically takes less than a minute and should not max out CPU usage for an extended period of time.

So what’s the fix? There’s quite a bit of information out on the Web about this and Microsoft has released a couple updates, but if your computer is really locked up you may have a hard time actually installing them. In fact I had to kill the svchost.exe process using Task Manager on one computer just to install the update (and that’s not an action I would recommend unless you really know what you are doing). The first thing you may need to do is temporarily fix the problem:

  1. Open My Computer and go to Tools -> Folder Options…, then the View tab. Verify that Show Hidden Files is selected and that the two options starting with Hide are unchecked.
  2. Click OK and then browse to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download, delete everything in the folder but not the folder itself, and then go to the Windows Update site and try to get the latest updates. The files you deleted should start to reappear, that is normal.
  3. If that does not work, go to Start -> Run…, type in net stop wuauserv, and hit Enter.
  4. In Windows Explorer, browse to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore and delete DataStore.edb (this will remove update history from Windows Update).
  5. Go to Start -> Run…, type in net start wuauserv, hit Enter and go to the Windows Update site and try to get the latest updates.
  6. If that does not work, repeat step #3 and then delete all files and folders under C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution but not the folder itself, then repeat step #5.

Once your computer is in a usable state, download and install the appropriate update from this page:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927891

then download and install the latest Windows Update Client here:

http://download.windowsupdate.com/v7/windowsupdate/redist/standalone/WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe

You may need to restart after the installation and the first time Windows Update runs afterward it may still use a lot of CPU but after that it should be fine.

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Hot EXE errors and their remedies

Thursday, May 10th, 2007

On modern operating systems like Windows XP and Vista, EXE errors should be relatively few and far between. A clean-running system may have occasional errors but these are typically the result of poorly written software and there’s really not much that can be done to fix them. However spyware and adware often causes executable errors as a result of very buggy code and attempts to hook into Windows system processes.

General EXE fixes

The first thing to do when troubleshooting an EXE error is to look up the error in Google. Chances are if it’s a common error someone has written something about it already. It’s important to get he name of the executable and the error number and read the solutions carefully to make sure they are related to the problem. Also make sure that you have the latest updates from Microsoft Update. While updates occasionally cause errors they typically do a lot more good than harm to your computer, often by restoring core DLLs and registry information to a stable state.

Sometimes problems can be solved by re-registering core Windows DLLs. The Windows registry stores information about Windows DLLs but this information can be corrupted. Use the command line (Start -> Run… -> “cmd”) tool “regsvr32” to re-register DLLs as follows:

regsvr32 /i nameofdll.dll

Try re-registering the following DLLs and restarting Windows:

  • User interface errors: shell32.dll
  • Image errors: shimgvw.dll
  • Network errors: netplzwiz.dll
  • Internet Explorer errors: mshtml.dll

If this doesn’t do the trick, try uninstalling some programs that you don’t need and read the blog entry on speeding up your computer by pruning processes. Eliminating unnecessary programs can sometimes cure EXE errors as well as slow performance.

Clean up Spyware and Adware

More often than not, EXE errors are a result of spyware or adware infesting your computer. Internet Explorer especially bears the brunt of spyware infestations as it is the most common attack vector and certain adware programs attach toolbars and ActiveX controls to it. Normally a spyware infestation is easy to recognize – a new home page you can’t change, another toolbar in IE, slow performance or a swarm of pop-ups. Recently though spyware has been less and less obtrusive as organized criminals have taken over and making money has become the primary goal. If you don’t know that you have spyware you are a lot less likely to try cleaning it up.

The first thing to do is to run anti-spyware software and force it to do a manual scan of your computer. Most anti-spyware products offer “real-time” scan but it is quite difficult to look for thousands and thousands of spyware programs continuously without slowing the system to a crawl. A manual scan will search every type of infestation and has a much better chance of cleaning problems. A registry cleaner like RegCure is also a good option for deep-cleaning the registry after the junkware has been removed.

Last Options

If the error persists after a thorough cleaning, there may be a deeper issue. You may have a rootkit installed, a serious issue with Windows system files or folders or worse, a hard drive that is starting to die. At this point you should decide whether it’s worth your time to try more products, call the Geek Squad or simply back up your data and try something more dangerous like System Restore or a complete re-installation of Windows. If you are a casual user with only a few programs, a re-install of Windows might be faster and cheaper than continuing to troubleshoot the problem.

Advanced users should consider using the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (FAST) (Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Files and Settings Transfer Wizard) to create a backup of user profile settings and documents and burning it to a DVD in case things go wrong further down the road of troubleshooting. Be warned, however, that FAST doesn’t always work like it is supposed to. A manual backup of important documents is a necessity.

In the last 3 years I’ve had my desktop and laptop I haven’t had to re-install Windows once, but I’ve worked on friends’ computers which were so infested that I could have re-installed Windows in the same amount of time it took to clean it. The best cure is always prevention.

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