taskhost.exe
Summary
Legacy Task Host process (pre-Windows 8). Replaced by taskhostw.exe. Executes scheduled tasks implemented as DLLs.
taskhost.exe is the 139th most commonly executed Windows program in EchoTrail's dataset, observed 132,308 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)
- b79e0890e5acffe7966bb32a6aaa415d6e334d0df5452debe6a867bb03451ea681.12%
- 9dfd80610cbbc9188f6c6bc85c87016b0ae42254fc289c2b578e85282bdd9c2315.93%
- 1b297a8af0afbaeff0c2cfea93e2d2b688d43b45d82990034ff4e2404f0c58f61.87%
- 0cd2f3cf62b768f4036605665e6dd888f431b8febda77d07e852f12523072ffc1.08%
Process Ancestry
Top Grandparents
- services.exe80.82%
- wininit.exe19.18%
Top Parents
- svchost.exe80.13%
- services.exe19.85%
Top Children
- ngentask.exe99.84%
- WerFault.exe0.08%
- WinSAT.exe0.03%
- regsvr32.exe0.01%
- conhost.exe0.01%
- powershell.exe0.01%
- csrss.exe<0.01%
- wininit.exe<0.01%
Rare or environment-specific process names are omitted from ancestry tables. Percentages are of all observed relationships.
Security Analysis
What does taskhost.exe normally do?
Part of Microsoft software. Normal operation.
When is taskhost.exe suspicious?
Running from unexpected paths.
How do attackers abuse taskhost.exe?
Not commonly abused.
Detection guidance
No specific detection needed.
False positive notes
Normal Microsoft operation.
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Data from EchoTrail's dataset of ~346M Windows process executions. Last extracted 2026-08-04.