Solved svchost appears 4 times in Search

[Meisha]

Hello, could anyone please tell me if, in Windows 7 64 bit, there should be a copy of scvhost.exe in Windows/sysWOW64/, and another in each of Windows/winsys/amd64_microsoft-windows-services-svchost_<and a string of numbers> and x86_microsoft-windows-services-svchost_<and a string of numbers>? I always thought there was just supposed to be the one inside System32/, but I did a search on my C drive and it's showing me these 4. Thank you for your help!

 

[samuria]

The file basically only runs other programs so it's often used by malware run a virus scan look at the properties of each file see what it says

 

[Alejandro85]

What you're seeing is totally normal. The 2 "normal" files inside system32 and syswow64 are actually hardlinks to winsxs, from where the other 2 come from, in their respective x86 and amd64 versions. The vast majority of system32 and syswow64 follow this pattern too, this is how the default Windows 6.X versions are arranged.

 

[Meisha]

Thank you, Alejandro! That's a relief! Thank you for your reply, as well, Samuria. Yes, that's what had me concerned. I have malwarebytes and scan regularly, but still, can't be too careful.