Change Split Threshold for svchost.exe in Windows 10  

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    Change Split Threshold for svchost.exe in Windows 10

    Change Split Threshold for svchost.exe in Windows 10

    How to Change Split Threshold for svchost.exe in Windows 10
    Published by Category: General Tips
    15 Dec 2022
    Designer Media Ltd

    How to Change Split Threshold for svchost.exe in Windows 10


    Starting with Windows 10 Creators Update build 14942, service hosts (svchost.exe) are split into separate processes on PCs with 3.5 GB or more of RAM.

    If your PC has 3.5+ GB of memory, you may notice an increased number of processes in Task Manager. While this change may look concerning at first glance, many will be excited to find out the motivation behind this change. As the number of preinstalled services grew, they began to get grouped into processes known as service hosts (svchost.exe’s) with Windows 2000. Note that the recommended RAM for PC’s for this release was 256 MB, while the minimum RAM was 64MB. Because of the dramatic increase in available memory over the years, the memory-saving advantage of service hosts has diminished. Accordingly, ungrouping services on memory-rich (3.5+ GB of RAM) PCs running Windows now offers us the opportunity to do the following:

    1. Increase reliability: When one service in a service host fails, all services in the service host fail. In other words, the service host process is terminated resulting in termination of all running services within that process. Individual service failure actions are then run. As you may have noticed in Task Manager before, service hosts can contain a lot of services:
    Change Split Threshold for svchost.exe in Windows 10-services_1.png

    2. Increase transparency: Task Manager will now give you a better view into what is going on behind the scenes. You can now see how much CPU, Memory, Disk & Network individual services are consuming.

    To see the name of the service, click on the left-most arrow such that the Display name drops down. Alternatively, right-click on the header and select ‘Command Line’ to add the Command Line column. Service names will be listed in the format ‘svchost.exe -k <svchost name> -s <service name>.’
    Change Split Threshold for svchost.exe in Windows 10-services_2.png
    Change Split Threshold for svchost.exe in Windows 10-svchost.exe.png

    3. Reduce servicing costs: Following reports of instability, service engineers, IT admins, and Microsoft engineers can rapidly pinpoint issues to the exact service and fix it.

    4. Increase security: Process isolation and individual permission sets for services will increase security.

    Note that critical system services (services whose recovery require system restarts), as well as a couple of select service hosts, will remain grouped.

    If your PC has less than 3.5 GB of RAM, the classic service management model will be used. Services will be grouped like in previous versions of Windows.

    If wanted, you can configure how Windows 10 splits up svchost.exe processes by changing the value of the SvcHostSplitThresholdInKB DWORD. This DWORD can be used to reduce the amount of svcshost.exe processes by increasing the threshold for when the service processes split.

    The default and recommended behavior is having more svcshost.exe processes for the reasons above by leaving the SvcHostSplitThresholdInKB DWORD set to 380000.

    This tutorial will show you how to change the split threshold for svchost.exe processes for all users in Windows 10.

    You must be signed in as an administrator to change the SvcHostSplitThresholdInKB value.




    Here's How:

    1 Press the Win + R keys to open Run, type regedit into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Registry Editor.

    1 Navigate to the key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below)

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control

    Change Split Threshold for svchost.exe in Windows 10-svchostsplitthresholdinkb_regedit-1.jpg

    3 In the right pane of the Control key, double click/tap on the SvcHostSplitThresholdInKB DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot above)

    4 Type the value from the table below based on the amount of RAM (memory) in KB your PC has or if you want to restore this back to default, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

    Example formula for value:

    8 GB = 8x1024 MB = 8x1024x1024 KB = 8388608 KB


    RAM Value
    (default) 380000
    4 GB 400000
    6 GB 600000
    8 GB 800000
    12 GB c00000
    16 GB 1000000
    24 GB 1800000
    32 GB 2000000
    64 GB 4000000

    Change Split Threshold for svchost.exe in Windows 10-svchostsplitthresholdinkb_regedit-2.png

    5 Close Registry Editor.

    6 Restart the computer to apply.


    That's it,
    Shawn






  1. Posts : 26,416
    Windows 11 Pro 22631.3374
       #1

    Thanks Shawn, I have been using this but the value I used was close to yours but not spot on.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 68,668
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #2

      My Computers


  3. Posts : 26
    Windows 10 Pro/Edu/Workstation (Digital Licence)
       #3

    really nice post... thanks for the valuable information :)
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 56,806
    Multi-boot Windows 10/11 - RTM, RP, Beta, and Insider
       #4

    Shawn, I have 32GB mem, mine is currently set to 380000 (default) in registry and there are no grouped services showing in task manager. Total processes vary from 195-220. I'm not clear on what affect changing the Reg to the 32GB value of 33554432 would do. I have not tried it yet.
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 5,443
    Windows 11 Home
       #5

    You can disable splitting svchost per a service in case of problems, like when Xbox's sign-in fails:
    Code:
    reg add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\XblAuthManager" /v "SvcHostSplitDisable" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 26,416
    Windows 11 Pro 22631.3374
       #6

    f14tomcat said:
    Shawn, I have 32GB mem, mine is currently set to 380000 (default) in registry and there are no grouped services showing in task manager. Total processes vary from 195-220. I'm not clear on what affect changing the Reg to the 32GB value of 33554432 would do. I have not tried it yet.
    I have been using it for quite some time, it reduces my processes from 120 to around 70 + when Idle. See the image below but that is with Firefox running.

    Change Split Threshold for svchost.exe in Windows 10-capture.png
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 56,806
    Multi-boot Windows 10/11 - RTM, RP, Beta, and Insider
       #7

    Josey Wales said:
    I have been using it for quite some time, it reduces my processes from 120 to around 70 + when Idle. See the image below but that is with Firefox running.

    Change Split Threshold for svchost.exe in Windows 10-capture.png
    Thanks, Josey. But I thought the whole purpose was to create more, smaller SVCHOST processes, to isolate and manage and protect from 1 service taking down 20 or more. Maybe I just don't fully understand the purpose.
      My Computers


  8. Posts : 26,416
    Windows 11 Pro 22631.3374
       #8

    f14tomcat said:
    Thanks, Josey. But I thought the whole purpose was to create more, smaller SVCHOST processes, to isolate and manage and protect from 1 service taking down 20 or more. Maybe I just don't fully understand the purpose.
    Here it is at Idle. I think it just combines processes much the same way Firefox used to compared to Chrome.

    Change Split Threshold for svchost.exe in Windows 10-capture.png
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 68,668
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Hello Dick, :)

    SvcHostSplitThresholdInKB DWORD is used to reduce the amount svcshost.exe processes by increasing the threshold for when the service processes split.

    The default and recommended behavior is having more svcshost.exe processes by leaving the SvcHostSplitThresholdInKB DWORD set to 380000 for the reasons at the top of the tutorial.
      My Computers


 

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