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The file manager should open to the C:\Windows\System32 directory containing the winlogon.exe file.
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To verify the real Windows Logon Application is running, right-click it in Task Manager and select “Open file location”. The real winlogon.exe file is located in the C:\Windows\System32 directory on your system. It’s normal for the winlogon.exe process to always be running on your system.

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If Windows can’t launch winlogon.exe, csrss.exe, or other critical user system processes, your PC will blue screen with error code 0xC000021A. Windows will always launch this process when you start your PC. RELATED: Everything You Need To Know About the Blue Screen of Death
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You’ll need to restart your PC to continue. The winlogon.exe process is responsible for handling Ctrl+Alt+Delete, so there’s no recovering your session once you’ve stopped it. If you bypass this message, your screen will go black and your PC won’t even respond to Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

If you try to end the process from the Task Manager, you’ll see a message saying that ending the process “will cause Windows to become unusable or shut down”. There’s no reason to disable it, anyway, as it just uses a tiny amount of resources in the background to perform critical system functions.

It’s a crucial part of Windows and must be running at all times. Microsoft also provides a more detailed, technical list of Winlogon’s responsibilities, if you’re interested. In summary, Winlogon is a critical part of the login process and needs to remain running in the background. The Windows Logon Application also monitors you keyboard and mouse activity and is responsible for locking your PC and starting screen savers after a period of inactivity.
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This combination of keyboard shortcuts is always caught by winlogon.exe, which ensures you’re signing in on a secure desktop where other programs can’t monitor the password you’re typing or impersonate a sign-in dialog. This is known as the “secure attention sequence”, and it’s why some PCs may be configured to require you to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete before you sign in. Winlogon.exe has special hooks into the system and watches to see if you press Ctrl+Alt+Delete. This allows programs to use the keys under HKEY_CURRENT_USER, which are different for each Windows user account. For example, when you sign in, the winlogon.exe process is responsible for loading your user profile into the registry. This process performs a variety of critical tasks related to the Windows sign-in process. This is the real file and removing it will cause problems with your PC.The winlogon.exe process is a very important part of the Windows operating system, and Windows will be unusable without it. If someone told you that the csrss.exe file located in C:\Windows\System32 is a virus, that’s a hoax. To verify it’s the real Client Server Runtime Process, you can right-click it in Task Manager and select “Open file location”.įile Explorer or Windows Explorer should open to the C:\Windows\System32 directory containing the csrss.exe file. The legitimate csrss.exe file is located in the C:\Windows\system32 directory on your system. It’s normal for this process-or even multiple processes with this name-to always be running on Windows. If csrss.exe can’t be launched when Windows boots, Windows will blue screen with error code 0xC000021A. Windows always launches this process at startup. This is a protected process you can’t terminate. Click through this warning and you’ll see an “Access is Denied” message. If you go into the Task Manager and try to end the Client Server Runtime Process, Windows will inform you that your PC will become unusable or shut down. There’s no reason to disable it, anyway-it uses a tiny amount of resources and only performs a few critical system functions. You can’t disable this process, as it’s a crucial part of Windows. In other words, this process is responsible for a few critical system functions in the background.
