The winhost.exe process is an executable program file that has been reported to be associated with the W32/Rbot-GK family of Trojans, which consists of malicious applications that can cause serious data security threats, user privacy risks and system stability issues in the infected Windows-based system, according to some users. The winhost.exe process has also been reported to be capable of automatically initializing during system startup because of the entries and keys it can create and enter into the Windows System Registry upon its placement and activation in the system. The same user reports stated that the winhost.exe process is capable of actively running undetected by the user during system runtime as a background process that scours the system for vulnerable TCP/IP network ports. The winhost.exe process, according to some users, exploit these vulnerable system TCP/IP network ports in order to initiate contact with predesignated Web servers that are operated and managed by the authors of this malicious application. The winhost.exe process has been reported to then proceed with downloading more malicious programs unto the system, in order to gather data and Internet browsing information from the infected system and its default Web browser, in which these pieces of collected data are then transmitted by the winhost.exe process to the Web servers of its authors.

Most non-system processes that are running can be stopped because they are not involved in running your operating system. winhost.exe. is used by W32/Rbot-GK, If you shut down winhost.exe, it will likely start again at a later time either after you restart your computer or after an application start. To stop winhost.exe, permanently you need to uninstall the application that runs this process which in this case is W32/Rbot-GK, from your system.

After uninstalling applications it is a good idea to scan you Windows registry for any left over traces of applications. Registry Reviver by ReviverSoft is a great tool for doing this.

The ReviverSoft experts have not yet reviewed winhost.exe

A process usually a part of an installed application such as W32/Rbot-GK, or your operating system that is responsible for running in functions of that application. Some application require that they have processes running all the time so they can do things such as check for updates or notify you when you get an instant message. Some poorly written applications have many processes that run that may not be required and take up valuable processing power within your computer.

We have not received any complaint about this process having higher than normal impact on PC performance. If you have had bad experiences with it please let us know in a comment below and we will investigate it further.

The first thing you should do if winhost.exe. is causing errors on your computer is to run a Windows registry scan with Registry Reviver If you are still seeing errors after this you should uninstall the program that winhost.exe, belongs to, in this case W32/Rbot-GK