What is the System process in Windows Task Manager?

[GoingUp]

I have a task called System in my windows task manager on xp 64bit. I dont remember ever seeing it before. Its taking up 256k of memory, but using about 10% of my CPU on my athlon 5000+. I can't kill the task and I've been unsuccessful finding any information about it on the web.

Anyone have any idea? No .exe on the end at all. Just says "System"

 

[Nothinman]

It's the System. It's what you see running whenever the NT kernel's threads are using CPU time.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
It's the System. It's what you see running whenever the NT kernel's threads are using CPU time.

10% of time on that process sounds weird and could be suggestive of a problem. Given its x64 I lean away from malware (but its possible) or possible a bad driver. The memory usage sounds about right.

 

[Nothinman]

Yea, I didn't comment on the constant 10% usage which is definitely not normal.