Win.exe process comes from a malevolent program that can correctly be identified as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system roughly unusable as a result of high CPU usage.
What is Win.exe process?
Win.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Win.exe – Really high CPU as well as GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will likely struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as critical as processor for system work, so Win.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It sometimes may cause bad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Win.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Win.exe virus makes your PC overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, because all processor power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your needs, all it focuses on is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely experience incredibly sluggish efficiency. Pages will open for years, any type of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who does a job online.
Win.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Win.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 Win.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your computer. Win.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To execute all malicious functions effectively, it ruins the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new entries – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be reverted to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your PC’s performance, running at peak level for a long period of time can cause damage to your machine and increase electricity bills. PC components are designed to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Small and covered processor fan is not very easy to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while running, for example, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Win.exe can easily lead to GPU failure3. Video cards are also prone to have increased wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely a bad situation when the performance of your video card decreases on 20-30% just after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Win.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 PC is by downloading it from the dubious web page as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. Thus, there is a very big temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for every setup. Prior to criticizing these guys for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid buying the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus software as well as new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Win.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 operating system components, are not launched with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC 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.
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