What is asghost.exe doing on my computer?

asghost.exe is a security control process associated with certain Credential/ Access Managers for hardware supplied by Cognizance, now acquired by L-1 Identity Solutions, usually OEM finger-print readers.



This process is non-essential and should not be terminated unless suspected to be causing problems.


Non-system processes like asghost.exe originate from software you installed on your system. Since most applications store data on your hard disk and in your system's registry, it is likely that your computer has suffered fragmentation and accumulated invalid entries which can affect your PC's performance.

In Windows Task Manager, you can see what CPU, memory, disk and network utilization is causing the Cognizance Identity and Access Management process. To access the Task Manager, hold down the Ctrl Shift Esc keys at the same time. These three buttons are located on the far left of your keyboard.

The asghost.exe is an executable file on your computer's hard drive. This file contains machine code. If you start the software Cognizance Identity and Access Management on your PC, the commands contained in asghost.exe will be executed on your PC. For this purpose, the file is loaded into the main memory (RAM) and runs there as a Cognizance Identity and Access Management process (also called a task).

Is asghost.exe harmful?

This process is considered safe. It is unlikely to pose any harm to your system. The asghost.exe file should be located in the folder C:\Program Files\HPQ\IAM\bin. Otherwise it could be a Trojan.

Can I stop or remove asghost.exe?

Many non-system processes that are running can be stopped because they are not involved in running your operating system. asghost.exe is used by 'Cognizance Identity and Access Management'. This is an application created by 'Cognizance Corp'.

If you no longer use Cognizance Identity and Access Management, you can permanently remove this software and thus asghost.exe from your PC. To do this, press the Windows key R at the same time and then type 'appwiz.cpl'. Then find Cognizance Identity and Access Management in the list of installed programs and uninstall this application.

Is asghost.exe CPU intensive?

This process is not considered CPU intensive. However, running too many processes on your system may affect your PC’s performance. To reduce system overload, you can use the Microsoft System Configuration Utility (MSConfig) or the Windows Task Manager to manually find and disable processes that launch upon start-up.

Use the Windows Resource Monitor to find out which processes and applications write/read the most on the hard drive, send the most data to the Internet, or use the most memory. To access the Resource Monitor, press the key combination Windows key R and then enter 'resmon'.

Why is asghost.exe giving me errors?

Most asghost issues are caused by the application executing the process. The surest way to fix these errors is to update or uninstall this application. Therefore, please search the Cognizance Corp website for the latest Cognizance Identity and Access Management update.