Currently browsing posts under the tag: utility.

Is Svhost.exe killing your CPU? Fix it with this handy utility

Written by: StevenHodson on November 2, 2009

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man-pulling-hair-out-2 You’re quietly working away minding your own business when you start to find that programs are taking a coffee break amount of time to open and everything seems to be taking forever to complete (never mind the it’s Windows what do you expect jokes – heard them all).

As the frustration mounts you wonder what could be causing the problem so you fire up Task Manager to take a look (Windows 7 users will have to click on the Show processes from all users). As you scroll through the list you suddenly spot the culprit that is jacking your CPU up to a 100%.

It’s a Windows services called Svhost.exe and it’s acting like a drunk at a free bar but the problem is that this is a required service in Windows and is actually a number of Svhosts processes all rolled into one. So how does one find out which Svhost.exe is causing all the grief and then fix the problem.

Well thanks to the crew at Addictive Tips you can now use a nice little util called Svhost Viewer (which you can download here). With the utility program you will be able to find out more information about which Svhost.exe is causing the grief and then turn it off.

SvchostViewer

As an added bonus the util is portable so you can add it to your USB tool chest of handy dandy utilities.

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Category: Software

It’s Great! What’s it do?? Group Policy Editor Unmasked

Written by: StevenHodson on December 15, 2008

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wait Ever since Windows 95, Microsoft has included in its operating systems (in most versions) the Group Policy Editor, aka GPE. Originally meant for System admins to keep the (L)users from digging into settings that could compromise their machine or the network, and to make sure that workstations all had the same important settings, it was realized that the home user could make use of it as well, provided some care was taken.

If you run XP Home, I wrote an article a while back about enabling GPE in Home, but further research on my part and others indicates that this trick doesn’t always work, even though it went fine on the two test machines with that OS here.

The first time I used GPE was by necessity and frustration. I was in the middle of about five projects, I had dozens of windows open, 20-plus tabs in Firefox running, and here comes Windows, helpfully reminding me that I needed to reboot to complete the venerable Update Process.

Every 30 seconds, or so it seemed. Apparently, my definition of “later” does not bear even the slightest resemblance to Microsoft’s definition of “later”.

&$%^ on that! I was busy! A quick post to the Winextra Forums had me my solution in short order. Using GPE, I could instruct Windows NOT to notify users (me!) about the required restart every 10 minutes, which is the default interval.

The floodgates hath opened.

I went crazy. I modified EVERY-THING. (insert maniacal laughter)

Continue reading It’s Great! What’s it do?? Group Policy Editor Unmasked »

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Category: Software