Al,
Four or five instances of svchost.exe is quite normal. Don't end them. But you should also know that there are few viruses with the same name "svchost.exe". It's advisable to run a Virus Scan as well. If you want to see which services are run by each SVCHost process:
For XP Pro:
Click Start | run | CMD
Type "Tasklist /svc >c:\list.txt"
The list.txt will contain the services list (also the ones launched by each SVCHost process)
Windows XP Home does not have tasklist.exe. You can download a copy of it from here.
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/utils/tasklist.exe
314056 - A Description of Svchost.exe in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314056
--
Ramesh - Microsoft MVP
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k
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Prevent Spyware from being installed:
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware Defence.htm
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How many files by the name of "svchost.exe" should be
running at one time? I've checked the system processes
and found anywhere from 3 to 6 of the same file running
at the same time.
