What is svchost.exe And Why Is It Running?

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/what-is-svchostexe-and-why-is-it-running/

You are no doubt reading this article because you are wondering why on earth there are nearly a dozen processes running with the name svchost.exe. You can’t kill them, and you don’t remember starting them… so what are they?

So What Is It?

According to Microsoft: “svchost.exe is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries”. Could we have that in english please?

Some time ago, Microsoft started moving all of the functionality from internal Windows services into .dll files instead of .exe files. From a programming perspective this makes more sense for reusability… but the problem is that you can’t launch a .dll file directly from Windows, it has to be loaded up from a running executable (.exe). Thus the svchost.exe process was born.

Why Are There So Many svchost.exes Running?

If you’ve ever taken a look at the Services section in control panel you might notice that there are a Lot of services required by Windows. If every single service ran under a single svchost.exe instance, a failure in one might bring down all of Windows… so they are separated out.

Those services are organized into logical groups, and then a single svchost.exe instance is created for each group. For instance, one svchost.exe instance runs the 3 services related to the firewall. Another svchost.exe instance might run all the services related to the user interface, and so on.

So What Can I Do About It?

You can trim down unneeded services by disabling or stopping the services that don’t absolutely need to be running. Additionally, if you are noticing very heavy CPU usage on a single svchost.exe instance you can restart the services running under that instance.

The biggest problem is identifying what services are being run on a particular svchost.exe instance… we’ll cover that below.

If you are curious what we’re talking about, just open up Task Manager and check the “Show processes from all users” box:

Checking From the Command Line (Vista or XP)

If you want to see what services are being hosted by a particular svchost.exe instance, you can use the tasklist command from the command prompt in order to see the list of services.

tasklist /SVC

The problem with using the command line method is that you don’t necessarily know what these cryptic names refer to.

Checking in Task Manager in Vista

You can right-click on a particular svchost.exe process, and then choose the “Go to Service” option.

This will flip over to the Services tab, where the services running under that svchost.exe process will be selected:

The great thing about doing it this way is that you can see the real name under the Description column, so you can choose to disable the service if you don’t want it running.

Using Process Explorer in Vista or XP

You can use the excellent Process Explorer utility from Microsoft/Sysinternals to see what services are running as a part of a svchost.exe process.

Hovering your mouse over one of the processes will show you a popup list of all the services:

Or you can double-click on a svchost.exe instance and select the Services tab, where you can choose to stop one of the services if you choose.

Disabling Services

Open up Services from the administrative tools section of Control Panel, or type services.msc into the start menu search or run box.

Find the service in the list that you’d like to disable, and either double-click on it or right-click and choose Properties.

Change the Startup Type to Disabled, and then click the Stop button to immediately stop it.

You could also use the command prompt to disable the service if you choose. In this command “trkwks” is the Service name from the above dialog, but if you go back to the tasklist command at the beginning of this article you’ll notice you can find it there as well.

sc config trkwks start= disabled

Hopefully this helps somebody!

Finally a new server setup allows me to post again!

Don’t go sour with a lemon! 8 car-buying tips

Robert Evans lists how to negotiate the best deals for your new wheels

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21032785/

Want the inside scoop on how to negotiate deals? In Weekend TODAY’s “Secrets of the Trades” series, former car salesman Robert Evans shares the down and dirty secrets to help folks get the best offer and possibly save them, hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on their new car purchase:

1. Financing
It’s always good to be pre-approved by your bank or credit union, it helps you negotiate a better rate when you get to the dealership. If you qualify, the dealer can sometimes offer a better rate than your bank or credit union.

2. Leasing
Leasing can also be an attractive option by getting more vehicle (equipment) for a smaller payment than financing and less out of pocket cash. But beware of the restrictions with leasing, i.e. mileage constraints, wear & tear costs, higher insurance rates and many have a disposition fee at the termination of the lease from $250 to $400

3. Know your fico score (credit)
You should know your score before you arrive — it will make a significant difference in your interest rate because most dealers work on a tier system with 1 being the highest and 4 being the lowest. Tier 1 & 2 will qualify you for any special financing such as the low interest rates that are used in advertisements to draw you in the showroom.

4. Look to buy your car on the last three days of the month
Dealers need to make their quotas for the month, which has them pay less on floor plan dollars and allocates more vehicles to the dealer (the more vehicles sold, the more the dealer gets in return from the manufacturer). Dealers must sell their oldest inventory to avoid paying interest on the new cars they have in their inventory. Ask how long the car you’re buying has been in their inventory, you may even get a better deal if it has been in their inventory over 90 days.

5. Know what you want
Narrow your choices to a particular make and model. Don’t buy options you don’t need, such as a 4X4 when you drive mostly in the city and your vehicle is never used in off road or in extremely bad road conditions.

6. Negotiate
Always negotiate. Before you arrive at the dealership, know the incentive programs available for the vehicle you’re interested in (if any are available) — even with less than desirable credit you should still negotiate the price.

7. Make a fair trade
If you have a trade-in, negotiate it upfront as this will give you an indication if the dealer is being honest about its value. Know the value of your trade by determining the condition. The dealer will always grade your trade as good or fair — buyer beware of this trick if your trade is in pristine condition. Don’t allow the dealer to steal your vehicle, only make the deal when the number is what your looking for (be realistic). Ask for the ACV (actual cash value).

8. Read the fine print on your warranty
It may NOT cover you bumper to bumper. They are usually a limited bumper to bumper and in some cases non- transferable.

Every once in a while, I get a little miffed when seeing so much “gay gay gay” on TV.
Then I read this, realize I am being an idiot and relax.

Ten Reasons Gay Marriage is Un-American

Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.

Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

Gay marriage is not supported by religion.
In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country.
That’s why we have only one religion in America.
Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home.
That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

source: Barnharts.NET http://www.barnharts.net/bn/itinstructions.asp

Remember this Instructions from the I.T. Department

1. When you call us to have your computer moved, be sure to leave it buried under half a ton of postcards, baby pictures, stuffed animals, dried flowers, bowling trophies and children’s art.

2. Don’t ever write anything down, especially the error message that was on your screen.

3. If we ask what the last thing you did was, always respond with, “I didn’t do anything.”

4. When we say we’ll be right over, immediately find a reason to leave so you won’t
have to answer silly questions from us, like “what’s your screen saver password?”

5. When describing your problem, just tell us what you were ultimately trying to do. For example, just say, “I can’t get my email”. We don’t need to know that the computer won’t even turn on.

6. Feel free to ignore any email sent from us, especially those marked with high importance.
You don’t really need to know about the latest virus that wiped out your neighbors hard drive.

7. Always send important and urgent emails in all uppercase.

8. When the copier, or anything else remotely electronic, doesn’t work, call us.
Heck, if we can fix computers, we must know all about copiers too.

9. If the document you sent to the printer didn’t print, send it at least 20 more times.
One of them is bound to work.

10. Don’t ever learn the proper name for anything technical.
We know exactly what you mean by “my thingy blew up”.

11. Don’t waste your time using the built in help files.
We already had to learn the hard way, why should you?

12. If any of the computer cables are in your way or keep moving, be sure to route them across
the top of your portable heater or set something big and heavy on them to hold them in place.

13. Never bother reading any message that pops up on your screen.
Just click the X to close it or the first button your mouse gets to.

14. Don’t ever try rebooting the computer yourself. Call us immediately.
Only experienced, highly-trained professionals should attempt that.

15. Feel perfectly free to say things like “I don’t know anything about this computer crap”.
We love hearing our area of professional expertise referred to as crap.

16. When you receive a huge movie file that’s really funny, be sure to forward it to all your friends.
We have plenty of disk space and bandwidth.

17. Don’t bother bringing a radio to work, just listen to music over the internet.
Like I said, we have plenty of bandwidth.

18. Don’t even think of breaking large print jobs down into smaller chunks.
Somebody else might squeeze their one-page document into the queue.

19. When an I.T. person is carrying heavy equipment, worth thousands of dollars,
that’s the best time to ask why your screen saver quit working.

20. Don’t bother to tell us when you move computer equipment around on your own.
We certainly don’t need to keep track of those things.

21. Your computer case makes a great flat surface for sitting drinks or potted plants on.

22. Do whatever you can to cover up those ugly open air slots in the computer and monitor.

Origin Link: http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2007/how-to-write-a-book-the-short-honest-truth/

How to write a book – the short honest truth
August 15th, 2007

Every author I know gets asked the same question: How do you write a book?.

It’s a simple question, but it causes unexpected problems. On the one hand, it’s nice to have people interested in something I do. If I told people I fixed toasters for a living, I doubt I’d get many inquires. People are curious about writing and that’s cool and flattering. Rock on.

But on the other hand, the hand involving people who ask because they have an inkling to do it themselves, is that writing books it’s a topic so old and so well tread by so many famous people that anyone who asks me, with the serious intent of discovering secret advice from my small brain and limited writing experience, is hard to take seriously.

Here’s the short honest truth: 20% of the people who ask me are hoping to hear this – Anyone can write a book. They want permission. Truth is you don’t need any. There is no license required. No test to take. Writing, as opposed to publishing, requires almost no financial or physical resources. A pen, a paper and effort are all that has been required for hundreds of years. If Voltaire and Marquis de Sade could write in prison, then you can do it in suburbia, at lunch at work, or after your kids go to sleep.

If you want to write, kill the magic: a book is just a bunch of writing. Anyone can write a book. It might suck or be incomprehensible, but so what: it’s still a book. Nothing is stopping you right now from collecting all of your elementary school book reports, or drunken napkin scribbles, binding them together at kinkos for $20, slapping a title on the cover, and qualifying as an author. Want to write a good book? Ok, But get in line. Most pro authors are trying to figure that out too.

Writing a good book, compared to a bad one, involves one thing. Work. No one wants to hear this, but if you take two books off any shelf, I’ll bet my pants the author of the better book worked harder than the author of the other one. Call it effort, study, practice, whatever. Sure there are tricks here and there, but really writing is a kind of work.

Getting published. 30% of the time the real thing people are asking is how do you find a publisher. As if there wasn’t a phone book or, say, an Internet-thingy where you can look this stuff up. Writers-market is literally begging to help writers find publishers. Many publishers, being positive on the whole idea of communication, put information on how to submit material on their website. And so do agents. The grand comedy of this is how few writers follow the instructions. That’s what pisses off all the editors: few writers do their homework.

The sticking point for most wanna-be published authors is, again, the work. They want to hear some secret that skips over the hard parts. Publishers are rightfully picky and they get pitched a zillion books a day. It takes effort to learn the ropes, send out smart queries, and do the research required to both craft the idea for a book, and then to propose it effectively. So while writing is a rejection prone occupation, even for the rock-stars, finding a publisher is not a mystery. In fact the whole game is self-selective: people who aren’t willing to do the leg-work of getting published are unlikely to be capable of the leg-work required to finish a decent manuscript.

But that said – it’s easier today to self-publish than ever. Really. But again, this requires work, so many prefer to keep asking writers how they got published instead of just doing it themselves.

Being famous and wealthy: Now this is the kicker. About 30% of the time the real thing people want to know is how to become a famous millionaire rock-star author dude. As if a) I qualified, b) If could explain how it happened, or c) I’d be willing to tell.

First, this assumes writing is a good way to get rich. Not sure how this one started but writing, like most creative pursuits, has always been a less than lucrative lifestyle. Even if a book sells well, the $$$$ to hour ratio will be well below your average corporate job, without the health benefits, sick days, nor the months where you can coast by without your boss noticing. These days people write books after they’re famous, not before. And if the only books you read are bestsellers, well, you have a myopic view of the publishing world. Over 100k books are published in the US annually, and few sell more than a few thousand copies, and what causes books to sell may have little to do with how good a book is. Either way, to justify the effort you’ll need reasons other than cash.

Discouraged yet? Good. Here is the upside: I love writing books. I love reading books. I love the entire notion that people can make things up in their mind and then make them real on a page, for the pleasure or utility of someone else. That’s just awesome. If you like writing, if you enjoy the bittersweetness of chasing words into sentences, then you might love writing books too, despite, or even because of, everything I said above. If so, get to work – now

If you were hoping for more practical advice:

Writing hacks: part 1 – starting – What to do when the page is blank.
Thinking like your editor: getting non-fiction published, Susan Rabiner.
The forest for the trees: an editors advice to writers, Betsy Lerner.
Writer’s market. Where and how to sell what you write.
National novel writing month – You must check this out.
Or leave a comment below. I am, despite the curmudgeonly vibe, happy to answer thoughtful questions.

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http://www.blogherald.com/2007/05/31/a-wordpress-developers-best-friend/