Tasklist.exe Virus (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Tasklist.exe executable file comes from a malevolent program that can correctly be defined as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin¹. It makes your personal computer roughly nonfunctional as a result of high CPU utilization.

What is Tasklist.exe process?

Tasklist.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus

Tasklist.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU usage

Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also make use of GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as crucial as CPU for system work, so Tasklist.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It sometimes can result in bad effects.

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 Tasklist.exe miner?

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

First of all, Tasklist.exe malware makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, since all processor power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your wants, all it pays attention to is generating profits 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 type of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person who does a job online.

Tasklist.exe Technical Summary.

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

“Visible” damage is not a solitary bad thing coin miners do to your personal computer. Tasklist.exe coin miner also deals damage to your operating system. To carry out all malicious functions successfully, it ruins the protection 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 load of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments are about to be gone back to the original in the process of PC recovery.

Hardware effects of coin miner activity

Besides slowing down your PC, running at peak power for a long period of time can cause damage to your device as well as raise power expenses. PC components are created to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.

Compact and covered processor fan is quite hard to broke. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if affected while working, for example, by the user much earlier before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Tasklist.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failure³. Graphic cards are also prone to have increased wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an unwanted case 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 Tasklist.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 suspicious web page as a part of a program. People who spread hacked versions of popular programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to get paid. Hence, there is a very big temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for every setup. Before criticizing these people for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus program as well as new parts for your PC.

How to remove the Tasklist.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 system is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, just like the majority of non-critical Windows components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.