sihost.exe
Summary
Shell Infrastructure Host - manages shell UI elements including the taskbar, Start menu transparency, and Action Center.
sihost.exe is the 353rd most commonly executed Windows program in EchoTrail's dataset, observed 24,528 times across enterprise environments. It typically runs from C:\Windows\System32 and it is most often launched by svchost.exe.
Behavior
Top Paths
- C:\Windows\System32100%
Top Hashes (SHA256)
- 19a5b7bdf931c7d743b33d83fee89311233050822ffa7eec883264c5d30b9d1228.84%
- d804721b48234c2b1e6b4c8346022edf58c8aa5a60c9df949421c2aa2f0d885513.59%
- 40a86a19ef9afa0021ca59d08454034e6a6c37d620be583c26e05e1d55d11ca013.58%
- 8ee21a0ba8849d31c265b4090a9e2ebe8ba66f58a8f71d4e96509e8a78f7db0012.33%
- ad0fd3b9f8a6455c59c9cb3ef58d64804a5c0b7d45936f727904412282437a6b9.49%
- 09d94357241ebb37e4510c3a168178822c9458530a30d0e829f5759d6202834d5.53%
- 98b93560ef621b0943d66057aec90b90d47b007a03cfe6b11acf88d6aea67ecd2.94%
- 6b7ed70e0728d01c277ed90a1b4f538e17b009054b435792dc589022838e72f92.75%
- c52fdd94f2f9245947ecfd76620306918e5add004db7bc132d49cc21b5e76a982.36%
- 32fabbc09ca776a819d40cf3e33a3fe44bf1db72ea351845b20ed9ff528b64d42.11%
Process Ancestry
Top Grandparents
- services.exe100%
Top Parents
- svchost.exe97.77%
Top Children
- msedge.exe58.95%
- PhotosService.exe4.97%
- SnippingTool.exe3.68%
- hp.smart.exe1.23%
- mmc.exe1.12%
Rare or environment-specific process names are omitted from ancestry tables. Percentages are of all observed relationships.
Security Analysis
What does sihost.exe normally do?
Runs from %SystemRoot%\System32\sihost.exe. One instance per interactive session.
When is sihost.exe suspicious?
Running from non-System32 path. Spawning command-line tools. Making unusual network connections.
Detection guidance
Verify path is System32.
Related Processes
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Data from EchoTrail's dataset of ~346M Windows process executions. Last extracted 2026-08-04.