Wincludes.exe process belongs to a malevolent program that can properly be identified as a coin miner trojan. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system pretty much unusable because of high CPU usage.
What is Wincludes.exe process?
Wincludes.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have actually mentioned previously, Wincludes.exe is a coin miner trojan. The names of the executive file may be diverse, however, the effects are usually the same. Since coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they use all possible hardware power of your desktop to conduct this operation. This virus does not pay attention to the fact that you may want to make use of your computer for other tasks – it will continuously use over 80% of your CPU power.
Wincludes.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as important as CPU for system work, so Wincludes.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes can lead to sad consequences.
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 anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a high-end desktop is required. Exactly, the GPU is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed of tens and hundreds of graphic cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “normal” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who make profit via this coin miner use someones’ hardware instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Wincludes.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Wincludes.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, because all processor power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your demands, all it focuses on is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with exceptionally slow efficiency. Pages will open for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who does a job online.
Wincludes.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Wincludes.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 Wincludes.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary negative activity coin miners perform to your personal computer. Wincludes.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your operating system. To carry out all malevolent functions properly, it wrecks the security mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new entries – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments are about to be thrown back to the initial state in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your computer slow, performing at peak level for long times can trigger damage to your machine as well as increase electricity costs. 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 CPU cooling system is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs 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 virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Wincludes.exe miner can easily lead to graphic card failure3. GPUs are also tend to have very fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely a bad situation when the performance of your graphic card plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Wincludes.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 “major” malware. Adware frequently serves as a carrier for Wincludes.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” may belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics show that approximately 30% of all viruses spread with the malicious banners are coin miners – and Wincludes.exe is right among them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
An additional way you could get this thing on your PC is by downloading it from the suspicious site as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked versions of popular programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to earn money. Thus, there is a huge temptation to add in malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for each installation. Prior to blaming these people for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus software and new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Wincludes.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 requires using specific tool. Effective anti-malware program should have high efficiency at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to create no problems with utilization also on weak systems. In addition, it is recommended to have proactive security in your security tool – to stop the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender does not have these features for various reasons. That’s why I’d advise you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that purpose. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a great option that fits all of the mentioned qualities.5
Prior to the malware removal, it is important to boot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Wincludes.exe miner takes a lot of CPU power, it is needed to stop 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 system is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, along with the majority of non-crucial Windows 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.
Remove Wincludes.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 Wincludes.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Wincludes.exe
Description: The Wincludes.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Wincludes.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.
