Where are services hosted by "svchost.exe -k NetworkService" on Windows XP? What is the meaning of "-k NetworkService" parameter?

"svchost.exe -k NetworkService" command is used to invoke the svchost.exe program to load the DLL file for the given service specified in the registry.

"-k NetworkService" is the process grouping parameter. It allows Windows to load multiple DLL files under a single shared svchost.exe process of the same group name.

In other words, all services that are launched by the same "svchost.exe -k NetworkService" command will be running under a single shared process of svchost.exe.

The advantage of using a shared process is to save process resources. But services of a shared process have execution environment dependency. If one service is running into problem, all other services of the same shared process will be impacted.

Here is a list of services hosted by the shared process of "svchost.exe -k NetworkService":

"Workstation - wkssvc.dll" Service on Windows XP

"Cryptographic Services - cryptsvc.dll" Service on Windows XP

"DNS Client - dnsrslvr.dll" Service on Windows XP

"Network Access Protection Agent - qagentrt.dll" Service on Windows XP

"Network Location Awareness - NlaSvc.dll" Service on Windows XP

"Remote Desktop Services - TermSrv.dll" Service on Windows XP

"Telephony - TapiSrv.dll" Service on Windows XP

"Windows Event Collector - Wecsvc.dll" Service on Windows XP

"Windows Remote Management (WS-Management) - WsmSvc.dll" Service on Windows XP

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