Wincfg.exe process comes from a harmful program that can correctly be defined as a coin miner virus. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer roughly nonfunctional due to high CPU utilization.
What is Wincfg.exe process?
Wincfg.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Wincfg.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will likely struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as critical as processor for system work, so Wincfg.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It sometimes may lead to sad results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Wincfg.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First, Wincfg.exe virus makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, as all CPU power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it focuses on is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely struggle with incredibly slow efficiency. Pages can open up for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a headache for a person that works online.
Wincfg.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Wincfg.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Setx.exe, Getmac.exe, Tasklist.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Wincfg.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your system. Wincfg.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To carry out all malicious functions correctly, it ruins the security components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new notes – they are added by this trojan 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, performing at peak power for long times may cause damage to your machine as well as increase electricity costs. PC components are created to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Small and covered CPU cooling system is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while spinning, for example, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Wincfg.exe can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also prone to have increased wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely an undesirable situation when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% only after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Wincfg.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
Another way you could get this item on your PC is by downloading it from the unreliable site as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked versions of popular programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to earn money. Hence, there is a huge temptation to add in malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for each setup. Prior to criticizing these guys for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus program as well as new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Wincfg.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 applications, just like the majority of non-critical system components, are not launched with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC without dealing with high CPU 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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