Pms.exe process belongs to a harmful program that can accurately be recognized as a coin miner trojan. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer almost unfunctional as a result of high CPU usage.
What is Pms.exe process?
Pms.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have specified before, Pms.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the .exe file may be different, but the impacts are generally the same. Since coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all available hardware capacity of your PC to conduct this operation. This virus doesn’t care about the fact that you probably want to use your desktop for other activities – it will continuously use over 80% of your CPU power.
Pms.exe – Really high CPU/GPU usage
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their operations. In that instance, 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 Pms.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It sometimes can lead to bad effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining is a term that means the operation of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral element of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a strong desktop is needed. Exactly, the GPU is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed of tens and hundreds of graphic cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such systems are not usable for “normal” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Fraudsters who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ hardware instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Pms.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Firstly, Pms.exe malware makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, as all CPU power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your needs, all it focuses on is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely experience incredibly sluggish performance. Pages will open for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that works online.
Pms.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Pms.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Lineinst.exe, Minerhash.exe, Zecminer64.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Pms.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your PC. Pms.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To conduct all malicious functions successfully, it wrecks the security mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent detection. 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 computer to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments shall be reverted to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides slowing down your computer, running at peak power for long times may cause damage to your machine and raise electricity bills. Hardware elements are designed to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Compact and covered CPU fan is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if affected while working, for instance, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Pms.exe miner can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also prone to have very fast wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is likely an unwanted situation when the performance of your graphic card decreases on 20-30% just after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Pms.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 the most widespread malicious programs among “serious” viruses. Adware often acts as a carrier for Pms.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics show that about 30% of all malware spread through the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Pms.exe is right among them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
One more way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious website as a part of a program. People who spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to earn money. For this reason, there is a huge temptation to include malware to the final package of the hacked app and get a coin for each setup. Prior to blaming these individuals for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus program as well as new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Pms.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 making use of special tool. Appropriate antivirus must have high performance at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to create no problems with usage also on weak systems. In addition, it is recommended to have proactive protection in your protection tool – to prevent the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender lacks these elements for various reasons. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that purpose. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a superb option that fits each of the mentioned qualities.5
Prior to the virus removal, it is important to reboot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Pms.exe miner takes a lot of processor power, 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, just like the majority of non-critical system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the computer without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.
Remove Pms.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 Pms.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Pms.exe
Description: The Pms.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Pms.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.
