Startup.exe process is related to a malicious application that can correctly be defined as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system pretty much unfunctional because of high CPU utilization.
What is Startup.exe process?
Startup.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Startup.exe – Very high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally utilize GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will probably struggle also to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as critical as processor for system work, so Startup.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes can cause sad results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Startup.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First, Startup.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, since all processor power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it pays attention to is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely struggle with extremely slow performance. Pages can open up for years, any type of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that does a job online.
Startup.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Startup.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Vgtray.exe, Runtimebroker.exe, Rthdvcpl.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Startup.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single unpleasant thing coin miners do to your system. Startup.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To carry out all malevolent functions properly, it ruins the security features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments shall be gone back to the original in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your PC slow, running at peak power for a long period of time may cause damage to your machine as well as raise power expenses. Hardware components are created to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.
Little and well-protected processor fan is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if touched while running, for instance, by the user much earlier before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Startup.exe malware can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Video cards are also tend to have very fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an undesirable situation when the performance of your GPU plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Startup.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
One more way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the untrustworthy website as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to earn money. Hence, there is a very big temptation to include malware to the final package of the hacked app and get a coin for every setup. Before blaming these guys for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid buying the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus program as well as new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Startup.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, just like the majority of non-crucial system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the computer without dealing with high processor 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.
Leave a Comment