Client/Server Runtime Subsystem (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Client/Server Runtime Subsystem, or csrss.exe, is a component of the Microsoft Windows NT operating system. It provides the user mode side of the Win32 subsystem and is included in Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, Server 2008 and 7. Because most of the Win32 subsystem operations have been moved to kernel mode drivers, in Windows NT 4 and later CSRSS is mainly responsible for Win32 console windows, GUI shutdown, and threading. It is critical to system operation; therefore, terminating this process will result in a Blue Screen of Death. Under normal circumstances, CSRSS cannot be terminated with the taskkill command or with Windows Task Manager, though it is possible in Vista if the Task Manager is run in Administrator mode.