Pc.exe process belongs to a malevolent application that can accurately be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system pretty much nonfunctional due to high CPU use.
What is Pc.exe process?
Pc.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Pc.exe – Really high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will likely struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as crucial as processor for system work, so Pc.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It often can cause bad effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Pc.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Pc.exe virus makes your PC overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, since all processor power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your demands, all it focuses on is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely suffer from extremely sluggish efficiency. Pages will open for years, any type of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who works online.
Pc.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Pc.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Dxcap.exe, Remezttf.exe, Zhemdo_build.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Pc.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your personal computer. Pc.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To execute all malevolent operations properly, it ruins the protection features 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 trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments are about to be reverted to the initial state in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your computer slow, performing at peak power for a long period of time can cause damage to your machine and increase power expenses. PC components are designed to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.
Small and well-protected processor fan is not very easy to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if affected while spinning, for instance, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Pc.exe virus can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Video cards are also prone to have increased wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely an unwanted situation when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% only after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Pc.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 item on your PC is by downloading it from the unreliable site as a part of a program. People who spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to make money. For this reason, there is a huge lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and get a coin for every setup. Prior to blaming these guys for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid paying for the program in such a way? It is more affordable 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 Pc.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 programs, just like the majority of non-crucial system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the PC 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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