Program.exe Virus (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Program.exe executable file comes from a harmful program that can properly be identified as a coin miner trojan. That malware form utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system almost unfunctional as a result of high CPU utilization.

What is Program.exe process?

Program.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Program.exe Windows Process

Program.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU use

Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will likely struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as crucial as CPU for system work, so Program.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes can cause bad consequences.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

  • Microsoft Defender is stopped;
  • CPU and GPU is loaded at 80-90% exactly after the system start
  • Cooling fans are running at high speed and create a lot of noise
  • A single process in Task Manager consumes all CPU and GPU power
  • How dangerous is the Program.exe miner?

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

    First off, Program.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, as all CPU power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your demands, all it focuses on is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely suffer from exceptionally slow performance. Pages will open for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a headache for a person who works online.

    Program.exe Technical Summary.

    File Name Program.exe
    Type Trojan Coin Miner
    Detection Name Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution Method Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behavior Qqlo.exe, Runtimeerror.exe, Processname.exe
    Removal Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Program.exe removal.

    “Visible” harm is not a solitary negative thing coin miners do to your computer. Program.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your operating system. To perform all malicious functions effectively, it wrecks the protection components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton of new entries – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be thrown back to the original in the process of computer recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides making your PC slow, performing at peak level for long times may trigger damage to your machine and raise 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.

    Little and covered CPU cooling system is not very easy to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if touched while running, for instance, by the user much earlier before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Program.exe miner can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also tend to have very fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an undesirable situation when the performance of your video card decreases on 20-30% only after several weeks of being used in such a way.

    How did I get Program.exe coin miner virus?

    Coin miners are spread through different ways, but their main sources are malicious banners and programs from dubious sources
    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    Another way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the untrustworthy web page as a part of a program. People that spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to earn money. Hence, there is a huge lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for every installation. Before blaming these guys for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid paying for the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus software and new parts for your computer.

    How to remove the Program.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.

    Boot into Windows Safe Mode

    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.

    windows safe mode boot option with command prompt

    When your PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, along with the majority of non-critical operating system components, are not launched with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the computer without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.

    References

    1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
    2. About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.

    Spanish Turkish

    About the author

    Robert Bailey

    Security engineer focused on malware behavior, removal workflows, and Windows hardening. Robert reviews threat articles for practical accuracy, checking detection names, symptoms, and cleanup steps before publication.

    Leave a Comment