In Windows operating systems, “Service Host: Network Service” refers to a process that runs under the “svchost.exe” executable. Svchost.exe is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries (DLLs). It helps to efficiently manage multiple Windows services that share the same process.
“Network Service” is a security context in which the service runs. The Network Service account is a built-in account with low privileges that has just enough access to resources and objects on the computer to function as a network service.
When you see “Service Host: Network Service” in Task Manager, it means that multiple Windows services are running within the same svchost.exe process, all under the security context of the Network Service account. These services are responsible for various networking-related tasks on the system, such as network connections, firewall settings, and other networking functionalities.
It’s worth noting that there can be multiple instances of Service Host running on a system, each hosting different sets of services. This design helps improve system stability and resource efficiency. If you need more detailed information about which services are running within a particular instance of Service Host, you can use tools like the Resource Monitor or the command-line tool “tasklist” with specific parameters.