Nottepad.exe executable file belongs to a malicious program that can accurately be identified as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system pretty much nonfunctional due to high CPU utilization.
What is Nottepad.exe process?
Nottepad.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Nottepad.exe – Really high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will likely struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as vital as processor for system work, so Nottepad.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes can lead to unhappy effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Nottepad.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First, Nottepad.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, since all CPU power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your needs, all it focuses on is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely suffer from extremely slow performance. Pages can open up for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who works online.
Nottepad.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Nottepad.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Rcu64.virus/, Msetup.exe, Micro.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Nottepad.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single bad activity coin miners perform to your computer. Nottepad.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To carry out all malevolent operations correctly, it ruins the security mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new notes – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining 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 making your PC slow, performing at peak level for a long period of time may trigger damage to your machine as well as increase power costs. PC components are designed to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Small and well-protected processor fan is not very easy to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while spinning, for instance, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Nottepad.exe miner can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Graphic cards are also prone to have very fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely a bad case when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Nottepad.exe coin miner virus?
Coin miners are spread through different ways, but their main sources are malicious banners and programs from dubious sources
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
An additional way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious web page as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to get paid. Hence, there is a huge lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and get a coin for every installation. Prior to criticizing these individuals for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus software and new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Nottepad.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
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 PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party apps, along with the majority of non-crucial system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the system without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.
References
- Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
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