hwapi.exe task purpose and description:

HWAPI.exe is software program that may have been on your computer since the day you purchased, as it could have arrived as preinstall software on your computer. To help identify that this program is not spyware or virus related software, always verify the file is in the proper location as shown below. This HWAPI.exe software file is called Hacker Watch, and it is from McAfee security and it is part of their antispyware and antivirus security suite. This is a security related software module called Hacker Watch Service, if you have Mcafee virus protection installed, you will see this running in your active task list when you press CTRL-ALT-DEL. This MPFSrv.exe file is considered safe and is not spyware, adware, or virus related software. (See the details below for the actual location of this file.)

Actual process or task name: (You can view alphabetical task list here)
hwapi.exe

File type:
This is an executable program.

Where is this file and folder located on my computer?
C:\Program Files\Common Files\McAfee\HackerWatch\HWAPI.exe is the proper disk / hard drive location for this file.

General information:
Be aware that many tasks will be similiar names to existing tasks or processes. You can always view the running tasks on your computer by pressing ctrl-alt-del to view the windows "task manager", and then view the "processes" tab. This will show you all tasks running or currently active on your PC. Although this shows you all running tasks, it does not show dll file thats are loaded, as they get loaded as part of other processes. Many spyware writers attempt to hide their files on your computer, for example, hwapi.exe may be intentionally misspelled to look like a similiar task, or spyware may be named very similiar to a Windows system task. The reason they do this is so you cannot easily recognize the name in your tasklist as I have mentioned above. Make sure always check the location of the file if you are concerned. You can always find the location of hwapi.exe on your computer by using your Windows search options, but I will also try to list the file location of every file described on this website, so you can verify the correct location. You can view the entire tasklist directory with the link below.

View entire task list here!