The primary objective of introducing Conhost was to provide something like Shell to the system-level CSRSS service to enhance its security and reliability and also grant it ability to integrate with modern interface elements of Windows. For example, if you drag and drop any Word file in Windows, the result would the entire path of the word file would be copied in the command prompt. With Conhost introduced Command Prompt had interface elements like scrollbars and it was also possible to drag and drop windows elements directly in Windows. The Conhost sits in between Command Prompt (cmd.exe) and CSRSS allowing Windows to fix the issues. Another problem was that it could not be themed and the command prompt did not have interface elements (like scroll bars) then.

And this was not the only problem with CRSS. The crash of CSRSS would bring the whole system down, which as you may guess, made its reliability questionable. There were instances when malware exploited these security vulnerabilities. CSRSS was a system level service with some security vulnerabilities. Conhost was introduced to thwart malware exploitation in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.ĭuring the days of Windows XP, command prompt was handled by a process known as ClientServer Runtime System Service (CSRSS). Understanding Conhost will require you to go into the history of the Windows operating system.

What is Conhost.exe?Ĭonhost stands for Console Application host. Here you’ll find answers to all your questions. Is Conhost.exe eating too much of CPU and memory resources and slowing down your system? Are you wondering what Conhost.exe? Is it a legitimate and necessary process? Or is it a malware?

Conhost.exe console window host