i noticed this process was eating up all the CPU and is constantly at 99%, and really slowing down my comp as well as boinc. I had installed boinc as a service a while back but then recently noticed that boinc just gind to a halt. i restarted it, but still no luck. i then removed it and installed it normally (not as a service, disable it) and realised that boinc did not stop because of a problem with the software but because of services.exe (which i cant close either because it is a critical process). what should i do??
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I'd say get a good virus scanner and possibly also a spyware scanner, because it sounds like you've picked up something nasty. :(

services.exe is called whenever a service needs to be started or stopped, but shouldn't cause any appreciable CPU load once the service it's starting or stopping is taken care of.

There are a few known bugs with services.exe (mostly in Win2K), but I believe all of them were resolved as of the last service pack (SP4). Perhaps you're not fully updated?

Give us some more info about your computer/OS and we'll see what we can do.

im on WinXP sp1. should probably update to sp2, but maybe sometime soon. i havent a clue as to why services.exe is acting up. i've got AVG AntiVirus(Free), but it hasnt said anything. will do a full scan and even a scan for spyware now.
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> im on WinXP sp1. should probably update to sp2, but maybe sometime soon. i
> havent a clue as to why services.exe is acting up. i've got AVG
> AntiVirus(Free), but it hasnt said anything. will do a full scan and even a
> scan for spyware now.

Hrmm... assuming you don't find that a virus or malware/spyware is to blame, then I could only suggest that you check your services and look for any that are supposed to start 'automatically' but are not running. Could be that services.exe is trying to do something for a service that is somehow broken.

It's always possible that windows is logging what's going on, so check your event viewer (I think it's still in Control Panel, Administrative Tools in XP, but I don't have an XP machine nearby to confirm that). I would check all 3 logs (Application, Security and System) and look for anything unusual (like oodles of little red triangles with '!' in them). ;)

G'luck and let us know if you can find anything more from that.

WinTasks Process Library



services - services.exe - Process Information
Process File: services or services.exe
Process Name: Windows Service Controller

Description:
services.exe is a part of the Microsoft Windows Operating System and manages the operation of starting and stopping services. This process also deals with the automatic starting of services during the comptuers boot-up and the stopping of servicse during shut-down. This program is important for the stable and secure running of your computer and should not be terminated.

Author: Microsoft Corp.
Part Of: Microsoft Windows Operating System

System Process: Yes
Virus: No
Spyware: No
Background Process: Yes
Uses Network: No
Hardware Related: No

Security Risk (0-5): 0
Common Errors: N/A

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ask google

the services.exe file which started up here and was using 100% cpu started up under the usernam and not SYSTEM. I had terminated it using TaskInfo 2003 (as the task manager wouldnt let me) and since then everything's been running fine. i also noticed services.exe under the task manager, but this time as SYSTEM.
you think i picked up something bad? doing a scan as we speak
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look what i happened to find hiding in the Startup menu...



im positive thats what was causing the problem. i had a doubt when i noticed that services was being started up by the user and not as SYSTEM. just hope thats the end of that

cheers!
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under "system" running tasks/services are called by the OS itself.


a "good" use of services from the OS is for an example, if your drives are formatted as HPFS AND you ahve turned the "do file index" on (drive.Properties.first tab)

everything *unknown* running under "user" is basically worth to take a closer look.

take a look to all you starup folders, look into the registery under

"hklm" and "current user" under "RUN" "RUNONCE" "run as service" sektions for
?? entries.

as mentioned use a spyware or ADaware tool. this is a tool, looking into the registery and the files
if there is a malice entry.

a good freeware tool
is ad-aware from lavasoft (www.lavasoft.com)

-> if this IS a new, just now installed XP, give em 2-3 days.
In this period the OS is running some selftuning tasks for better caching and others.

The full path to the legitimate services.exe is c:\Windows\System32\services.exe in Windows XP. Some versions of the W32.Netsky@mm virus set themselves up as services.exe and, in this case, the full path often is c:\Windows\services.exe in Windows XP.

move this services.exe outside of the statup folder!
restart system
look again if the service is away

search your system, if there are more services.exe and verify date and filesize

> look what i happened to find hiding in the Startup menu...
>

Yep, that was the 'lil bugger causing your problems. Now the only thing you should consider doing is trying to find out how it got on there. :|

Good luck with that... sounds like you have a pretty good grasp of how to play detective with your system though! ;)

found another copy of services.exe in CommonFIles. when i restarted my comp (after deleting the file in the startup folder) i got an error at startup saying that Services.exe had to be closed because of some error (that "send error report" type of problem). so i decided search for it and found this other copy. lets hope its gone now.
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