Alternative2.exe process is related to a harmful application that can correctly be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system almost unfunctional due to high CPU usage.
What is Alternative2.exe process?
Alternative2.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have actually mentioned earlier, Alternative2.exe is a coin miner trojan. The names of the .exe file can be diverse, but the consequences are generally the identical. Considering that coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they use all available hardware capacity of your desktop to perform this operation. This malware doesn’t care about the fact that you probably need to use your device for other activities – it will always take over 80% of your CPU power.
Alternative2.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their operations. In that instance, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as critical as processor for system work, so Alternative2.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes can result in unhappy effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining term means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic part of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very strong PC is needed. Exactly, the video card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms are usually constructed of tens and hundreds of video cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “classic” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ PCs instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Alternative2.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Firstly, Alternative2.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, because all processor power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your demands, all it pays attention to is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with exceptionally sluggish efficiency. Pages can open for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who works online.
Alternative2.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Alternative2.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Server.exe, Software_reporter_tool.exe, Proxypub.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Alternative2.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single negative thing coin miners do to your computer. Alternative2.exe coin miner also deals damage to your operating system. To perform all malicious functions effectively, it ruins the protection components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes shall be thrown back to the initial state in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides slowing down your computer, running at peak power for a long period of time can trigger damage to your device and increase electricity expenses. PC elements are created to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Little and covered CPU cooling system is not very easy to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if touched while running, for example, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Alternative2.exe can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Graphic cards are also prone to have increased wearing when used for crypto mining. It is surely an unwanted situation when the performance of your graphic card plunges 20-30% only after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Alternative2.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 malevolent programs among “serious” malware. Adware often functions as a carrier for Alternative2.exe malware infiltration: it demonstrates you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any type – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that around 30% of all malware spread with the malicious banners are coin miners – and Alternative2.exe is just one of them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
An additional way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious website as a part of a program. People that spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to get paid. For this reason, there is a very big lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and get a coin for each installation. Prior to criticizing these people for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid paying for the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus program and new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Alternative2.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
Removing such a virus requires using specific tool. Effective antivirus must have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to make no problems with utilization also on weak systems. Furthermore, it is recommended to have on-run protection in your protection solution – to halt the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these features for different factors. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that reason. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a perfect choice that fits all of the mentioned qualities.5
Prior to the virus removal, it is important to reboot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Alternative2.exe miner takes a lot of CPU capacity, it is required to stop 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, along with the majority of non-crucial Windows components, are not launched with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.
Remove Alternative2.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 Alternative2.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Alternative2.exe
Description: The Alternative2.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Alternative2.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.
- Read more about various malware type on Cybersecurity Glossary.
- Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
