People ask me mostly about different Windows processes and now trying to answer one by one, let’s see the csrss process, What is csrss.exe? What is the process file location? How to identify the original and viruses and how to remove csrss without a tool.
The csrss.exe is a Client Server Runtime Subsystem process file, which must run all the time on Windows OS. Csrss.exe file works for Win32 console windows, manage the majority of the graphical instruction sets including GUI shutdown, creating or deleting threads and some parts of the 16-bit virtual MS-DOS. In laptops, the csrss.exe process file works dependently with power management schemes defined by the systems under Control Panel option.
How many csrss.exe files run in Windows OS?
There is just a single csrss.exe file exists on Windows operating system, but users may experience that more than one instance of csrss.exe are running under Task Manager as this is the case in Windows Vista which we observed that at least two instances of csrss.exe run at the same time. The number of csrss.exe file instances may differ according to the operating system version, but still, the Windows OS has just one csrss.exe file (see below where is csrss.exe located).
Can we remove csrss.exe?
Csrss.exe removal, the csrss.exe is a default process and holds critical features and functions for Windows. This is not recommended to kill or terminate the actual csrss.exe process improperly. Doing that may result in the Windows Blue Screen of Death.
Is csrss.exe a virus?
The csrss.exe is a critical system file, and it’s not a virus. But, sometimes it may get corrupted by a virus. Sometimes the virus, trojan and spyware use the same name csrss.exe, just to hide from system users. In return, any anti-virus program can be used to scan and eliminate those malicious files.
Where is csrss.exe located?
Orignal csrss.exe location is C:\Windows\System32\ (your drive may be different from C:). You can open this folder by typing %systemroot%\system32\ command in Run windows
How to identify original csrss.exe system file and handle csrss.exe problems?
Method-1
The path or location or original csrss.exe is mentioned above. In case there is more than one instance of csrss.exe running in Task Manager then you check their location by taking their properties
Right click on running csrss.exe process in task manager and select properties or Open file location.
If the file location is different from the above-provided address, then it means those are not original Windows files and should be killed and removed from its place. You may need administrator privileges to take properties of the running process.
Method-2
There is also an alternative way to identify original csrss.exe file, just navigate to Task Manager > Processes and right click on csrss.exe and click End Process
If this csrss.exe is a virus, then it will not show any critical message about the deletion. Otherwise, you will find the following message that the removal of this file is crucial to the system.
Share your experience about csrss.exe windows process, leave some comments below.
You might want to explore some other Windows operating system processes like svchost.exe, explorer.exe, ipodservice.exe, dwm.exe.
View Comments (44)
I have two csrss.exe process running in my Windows Vista. I have checked as you said these are not virus.
Yes, if csrss exe is not in system32 folder then its fake and virus.
thanks for providing answers to our questions about csrss.exe file.
Nice tricks to check csrss.exe is virus or not, thanks.
i was just wondering about csrss.exe but now i am completely clear about the process.
dang. i really wish i had known this stuff last weekend. i removed a couple of trojans a couple of weeks ago, then this past weekend, after i had started an online av before i went to bed and expected to find my computer in sleep mode the next morning, i wake up, go to my computer and the cpu is at 100% and it's all from the csrss process. it had apparently been going like this for several hours, i guess. i just shut the computer down and that was the end of it, but i didn't know what this post of yours said and didn't know to check if it was a trojan or not. darn!
i've also found out that if this process is hogging memory, check to see if it's using a lot more memory than normal, too.
I'm almost wishing it would do it again just so i can see if it's a trojan or just a corrupted user file. ( which i've learned can also create the csrss problem)
csrss.exe is not virus
its not virus its windows system file
csrss.exe process is client server runtime process
My friend attached usb and transfer spyware in my system is taht possible? i am not sure. but after that i got running 2 csrss.exe process in my task manager now. I will try your method to remove csrss.exe spyware from my computer