Acrotray.exe executable file comes from a malevolent program that can accurately be defined as a coin miner trojan. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system pretty much unusable due to high CPU use.
What is Acrotray.exe process?
Acrotray.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have actually mentioned in the introduction, Acrotray.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file may be diverse, but the effects are almost always the same. Because coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they use all available hardware capacity of your personal computer to run this procedure. This virus does not take note of the fact that you probably want to use your machine for other tasks – it will continuously take over 80% of your processor power.
Acrotray.exe – Very high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their tasks. In that instance, you will struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as important as processor for system work, so Acrotray.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It sometimes may lead to bad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining means the operation of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral element of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very strong desktop is required. Exactly, the video card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of dozens of graphic cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Fraudsters who make profit via this coin miner use someones’ computers instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Acrotray.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Firstly, Acrotray.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, since all CPU power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your demands, all it pays attention to is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely experience extremely sluggish efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person that does a job online.
Acrotray.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Acrotray.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Icue.exe, Fmservice64.exe, Udcuseragent.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Acrotray.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single unpleasant activity coin miners do to your computer. Acrotray.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To complete all malicious functions successfully, it ruins the protection components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new entries – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes shall be reverted to the original in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides slowing down your computer, performing at peak level for a long period of time may trigger damage to your device as well as increase electricity costs. Hardware components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Small and covered processor cooling system is hard to damage. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if touched while running, for instance, by the user much earlier before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Acrotray.exe miner can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Graphic cards are also tend to have very fast wearing when used for crypto mining. It is likely an undesirable case when the performance of your video card decreases on 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Acrotray.exe coin miner virus?
Coin miners are spread through different ways, but their main sources are malicious banners and programs from dubious sources
Coin miners are one of the most prevalent malicious programs through “serious” viruses. Adware frequently serves as a carrier for Acrotray.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” may belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics say that approximately 30% of all malware spread through the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Acrotray.exe is just with them.
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
Another way you could get this thing on your PC is by downloading it from the unreliable web page as a part of a program. People that spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. Therefore, there is a huge temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for every installation. Before criticizing these people for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid paying for the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus program as well as new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Acrotray.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
Eliminating such a virus demands using special tool. Proper security tool must have high performance at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to make no problems with utilization also on weak systems. In addition, it is better to have on-run security in your protection solution – to prevent the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender lacks these elements for various reasons. That’s why I’d recommend you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that objective. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a superb choice that fits each of the mentioned features.4
Prior to the malware removal, it is important to boot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Acrotray.exe miner takes a lot of processor capacity, it is needed to halt it before launching the security program. Otherwise, your scan will last for years, even though the GridinSoft program is pretty lightweight.
Booting the PC into Safe Mode with Networking
Press the Start button, then choose Power, and click on Reboot while holding the Shift key on the keyboard.
Windows will reboot into recovery mode. In that mode, choose Troubleshoot→ Startup Settings→ Safe Mode with Networking. Press the corresponding button on your keyboard to choose that option.
When your computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, just like the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the PC without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.
Remove Acrotray.exe coin miner virus with GridinSoft Anti-Malware
Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware. You can use this anti-malware program for free during its 6-day trial period. In that term, all functions are available, and it takes no payments to remove malware from your system.
After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.
When the scan is finished, press the Clean Now button to remove all detected elements from your system. This procedure takes less than a minute.
Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.
Remove Acrotray.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Acrotray.exe
Description: The Acrotray.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Acrotray.exe will create your CPU to go for very warm temperatures for prolonged periods of time, which could reduce the life of the CPU.
Operating System: Windows
Application Category: Trojan
User Review
( votes)References
- Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
- Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
- Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
