Question about smss.exe and user accounts

[Keyes]

Hi, I have a few questions about smss.exe

1. Does this process always have to run? Is it critical procesa for windows 7 x64? If I try to end it, I get a warning from task manager, as if I was shutting down csrss.exe for example

2. I created a test non admin account today, and have since deleted it. I noticed that at the same time I logged out and in to log into that account, a smss.exe prefetch file was made.

No matter what, I cant make the prefetch file appear again. Im wondering is smss.exe only supposed to exist if there is more than 1 account and is that why the prefetch file was there? If so, why is it still running?

Thank you, happy new year!

 

[billmcct]

Look here-
smss.exe - What is smss.exe?

 

[LMiller7]

smss.exe is a critical system process that Windows cannot run without. It starts at bootup and continues to run until system shutdown. Terminating it will force a system restart.