Vmcompute.exe process belongs to a malicious application that can accurately be defined as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware type utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer roughly nonfunctional due to high CPU usage.
What is Vmcompute.exe process?
Vmcompute.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have actually specified previously, Vmcompute.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file can be diverse, but the impacts are usually the identical. Since coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they use all available hardware capacity of your personal computer to perform this process. This virus does not care about the fact that you may want to use your device for other activities – it will continuously use over 80% of your processor power.
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners additionally utilize GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as important as CPU for system work, so Vmcompute.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It often may result in sad effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining is a term that means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral element of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very strong computer is required. Exactly, the video card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms usually consist of dozens of video cards to complete their task efficiently. Such systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Crooks who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ computers instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Vmcompute.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First, Vmcompute.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, as all CPU power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it pays attention to is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with extremely sluggish performance. Pages will open for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who works online.
Vmcompute.exe Technical Summary.
File Name | Vmcompute.exe |
Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
Similar behavior | Uihost.exe, Mbamservice.exe, Mbamwsc.exe |
Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Vmcompute.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a solitary unpleasant thing coin miners do to your personal computer. Vmcompute.exe coin miner also deals damage to your operating system. To conduct all malevolent functions successfully, it wrecks 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 number of new entries – they are added by this coin miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes are about to be reverted to the original in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your computer slow, running at peak level for a long period of time may cause damage to your machine and increase electricity bills. PC elements are created to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Little and well-protected CPU cooling system is hard to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while working, for instance, by the user much earlier before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Vmcompute.exe can easily lead to GPU failure3. Graphic cards are also tend to have very fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an unwanted case when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Vmcompute.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 one of the most common malevolent programs among “severe” malware. Adware sometimes serves as a carrier for Vmcompute.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any type – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics say that approximately 30% of all viruses spread with the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Vmcompute.exe is right with them.4
An additional way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the unreliable website as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to make money. Therefore, there is a very big lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for each setup. Before blaming these people for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus program as well as new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Vmcompute.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 involves using special software. Effective antivirus should have high performance at scanning and be lightweight – in order to make no problems with utilization even on weak computers. Additionally, it is recommended to have proactive security in your security solution – to stop the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender does not have these elements for various reasons. That’s why I’d recommend you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that objective. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a great choice that fits all of the specified characteristics.5
Before the virus removal, it is important to boot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Vmcompute.exe miner consumes a lot of CPU capacity, it is needed 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, 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 system without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.
Remove Vmcompute.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 Vmcompute.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Vmcompute.exe
Description: The Vmcompute.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Vmcompute.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.