Process List: "The path 'System' does not exist or is not a directory"

[rodrigt]

Help! In the Spybot (Advanced/Tools) Process List I have five suspicious items; when I right-click on each the “Show file in Explorer” results in a message window: “The path ‘System’ does not exist or is not a directory.” Before I “kill process” on these I would appreciate some advice.

Here are the five suspicious items – Process name, (PID/Parent/Threads) and Path (if any):
a- winlogon.exe (580/492/16) - \??\C:\WINDOWS\system32\
b- csrss.exe (556/492/12) - \??\C:\WINDOWS\system32\
c- smss.exe (492/4/3) - \SystemRoot\System32\
d- System (4/0/72) - (no path shown)
e- [System] (0/0/2) - (no path shown)

If these processes should be “killed”, does anyone know where they com from? In case they come back… Thanks!

PS- I see that winlogon.exe is “is a process belonging to the Windows login manager”, but as such it should be located in the folder C:\Windows\System32 (not \??\C:\WINDOWS\system32\). Likewise for crss.exe (“the main executable for the Microsoft Client/Server Runtime Server Subsystem smss.exe (“the Windows Session Manager Subsystem responsible for handling sessions on your system”).

[Zenobia]

For these:
a- winlogon.exe (580/492/16) - \??\C:\WINDOWS\system32\
b- csrss.exe (556/492/12) - \??\C:\WINDOWS\system32\
Please see here:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=87980
Mainly this post:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=504927&postcount=13

For system,please see:
http://www.processlibrary.com/directory?files=System

For this one:

c- smss.exe (492/4/3) - \SystemRoot\System32\
Please see:http://www.processlibrary.com/directory?files=smss.exe
Is it the path on this one that is bothering you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_variable#System_path_variables

As for e,I have no idea.But,I have it,and it has normally been in my process list in Spybot for years and years,so it shouldn't be a worry.Here's part of my process list,it has [System],too(I'll try looking it up later,if I get some more time):
PID: 0 ( 0) [System]
PID: 420 ( 0) \SystemRoot\System32\smss.exe
size: 50688
PID: 468 ( 0) \??\C:\WINDOWS\system32\csrss.exe
size: 6144
PID: 500 ( 0) \??\C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
size: 502272
PID: 544 ( 0) C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe

[rodrigt]

Dear Zenobia,

Per you avatar, THANK YOU for your instant pouncing on the issues I presented and resolving my all of my concerns 100% - Wow! As you may have noticed, I joined forums.Spybot today and in less than a couple of hours you replied to my very first post.

FYI… I have been using Spybot for several years, but simply as one of many other protective tools against malware. My newfound interest in Spybot came as it was mentioned as a great tool in a fabulous pair of online computer security courses (“Intro to Computer Security” and “Advanced PC Security” - great content depth and dialog with a remarkable instructor.)

PS- For all the money I have spent on protective software, instead of continued procrastination I will now send my contribution to Spybot <grin>.

[Zenobia]

You're welcome. :)