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What is Svchost.exe?

Anyone who's opened the task manager in any version of Windows has seen the process “svchost.exe” at one point or another. What's more confusing is that svchost is usually found to have more than one instance! What are they all doing there and just how much of my precious memory are they wasting?

Svchost is kind of a catch-all. It is used to host multiple services within one process. This helps to actually conserve memory in your system by having one process govern many. Stuff like Windows Update, the Event Log, Audio Services and bunches of other programs, processes and a the like are all found under the svchost umbrella. If you want to identify what services are using svchost there are a couple of different ways.

In Windows XP:

Open a Command Prompt and type “tasklist /svc”, minus the quotes. This will bring up a list of what processes are running under svchost, so you can see how important it is.

In Windows Vista:

No need to open a Command Prompt here. Just open task manager, click on the “processes” tab and make sure the checkbox that says “Show processes from all users” is checked. Next, Right-Click on any of the svchost processes and select “Go to Services”. There they are, every item that uses a process which you now know more about!

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Printer Resolution

If you know anything about printers at all, you probably know that, like monitors, they work with a certain resolution rate. Monitors have to be set at a certain resolution to bring out the best quality view for you while you use your computer. Well, printers have to do the same thing so that everything you print is eye catching and just the way you want it. You don't want your print jobs leaving something to desire, so you have to make sure you have the correct resolution set for your printer. Let's check it out!

The resolution for printers is measured in DPI (dots per inch). So, for example, your printer may be able to print at a 600 DPI level, which means it can print 600x600 per square inch of your paper (or 360,000 dots per inch). Printers that don't have a high resolution rate may give you what is called "jaggies," which simply means the images or text have little jagged edges. Believe me, you don't want jaggies!

Luckily, new inkjet and laser printers come with a technology that allows them to print little dots where the jagged edges lie, which fills them in so that they're not as noticeable. Hewlett Packard was the first printer company to come out with this, but other manufacturers are developing edge enhancements for their printers as well. Depending on what type of printer you have, you can find your resolution setting by poking around in your settings or preferences area under the menus in your printer software. If all else fails and you really want to know, try the Help menu as well. Here's to the perfect printer resolution!
 

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