Center.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Center.exe process belongs to a harmful program that can properly be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin¹. It makes your system pretty much unusable because of high CPU usage.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

When we talk about the intrusion of unfamiliar programs into your computer’s work, the proverb “Forewarned is forearmed” describes the situation as accurately as possible. Gridinsoft Anti-Malware is exactly the tool that is always useful to have in your armory: fast, efficient, up-to-date. It is appropriate to use it as an emergency help at the slightest suspicion of infection.

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What is Center.exe process?

Center.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus

As I have specified before, Center.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file can be diverse, but the effects are usually the same. Since coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware capacity of your personal computer to conduct this procedure. This malware does not take note of the fact that you probably want to make use of your system for other activities – it will always consume over 80% of your processor power.

Center.exe – Really high CPU as well as GPU usage

Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their tasks. In that case, you will likely struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as essential as CPU for system work, so Center.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It sometimes may result in bad consequences.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Crypto mining means the operation of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic part of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful desktop is needed. Exactly, the graphic card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms are usually constructed of tens and hundreds of graphic cards to complete their task efficiently. Such systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Fraudsters who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ computers instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

How dangerous is the Center.exe miner?

Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system

First, Center.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, since all processor power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your wants, 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 suffer from incredibly slow efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who works online.

Center.exe Technical Summary.

“Visible” harm is not a single bad activity coin miners do to your personal computer. Center.exe coin miner also deals damage to your operating system. To conduct all malevolent functions correctly, it ruins the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new entries – they are added by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be reverted to the original in the process of computer recovery.

Hardware effects of coin miner activity

Besides decreasing your system’s performance, performing at peak level for a long period of time may trigger damage to your device as well as increase power expenses. PC components are created to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.

Tiny and covered processor cooling system is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while running, for instance, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Center.exe miner can easily lead to GPU failure². GPUs are also prone to have very fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely an unwanted situation when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.

How did I get Center.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 widespread malevolent programs among “major” malware. Adware often works as a carrier for Center.exe malware injection: it demonstrates you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” can belong to any type – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics say that around 30% of all viruses spread with the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Center.exe is just one of 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 dubious site as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to make money. Thus, there is a very big temptation to add in malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for every setup. Prior to criticizing these individuals for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus program and new parts for your computer.

How to remove the Center.exe miner from my PC?

The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software

Getting rid of such a virus demands using specific software. Proper antivirus should have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to make no problems with usage even on weak systems. On top of that, it is recommended to have proactive security in your protection tool – to stop the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these elements for different factors. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that goal. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a superb option that fits each of the specified qualities.³

Before the malware removal, it is important to reboot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since .center.exe miner consumes a lot of processor capacity, it is required 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 apps, along with the majority of non-crucial system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.

Remove Center.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.

1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
2. About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
3. Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

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