Winhelper.exe process belongs to a harmful program that can correctly be recognized as a coin miner trojan. That malware type utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer pretty much nonfunctional due to high CPU utilization.
What is Winhelper.exe process?
Winhelper.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have actually pointed out previously, Winhelper.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file can be different, however, the consequences are generally the identical. Because coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they use all possible hardware capacity of your desktop to conduct this operation. This virus doesn’t care about the fact that you may want to use your device for other tasks – it will always consume over 80% of your processor power.
Winhelper.exe – Really high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will likely struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as essential as CPU for system work, so Winhelper.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It sometimes may result in sad effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Crypto mining means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral part of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a strong PC is needed. Exactly, the video card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed of dozens of graphic cards to complete their task efficiently. Such systems are not usable for “normal” 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 Winhelper.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, Winhelper.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, as all CPU power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your wants, all it pays attention to is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely experience exceptionally sluggish performance. Pages will open up for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person that works online.
Winhelper.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Winhelper.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | M_inst.exe, Spmm.exe, Churkaebanaya.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Winhelper.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary unpleasant thing coin miners perform to your system. Winhelper.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To execute all malevolent operations successfully, it wrecks the security features 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 ton of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments are about to be reverted to the initial state in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your system’s performance, performing at peak power for long times can trigger damage to your machine and increase electricity bills. Hardware components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.
Little and covered processor fan is not very easy to broke. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if affected while running, for instance, by the user much before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Winhelper.exe miner can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also prone to have increased wearing when used for crypto mining. It is likely an undesirable situation when the performance of your video card plunges 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Winhelper.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 widespread malevolent programs among “major” viruses. Adware sometimes acts as a carrier for Winhelper.exe malware infiltration: it demonstrates you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any type – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that about 30% of all malware spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and Winhelper.exe is right among them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
Another way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the suspicious web page as a part of a program. People who spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to make money. Therefore, there is a huge lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked application and acquire a coin for each installation. Before criticizing these individuals for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid buying the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus program as well as new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Winhelper.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
Eliminating such a virus demands the use of special software. Appropriate security tool must have high performance at scanning and be lightweight – in order to make no problems with usage even on weak systems. Furthermore, it is better to have on-run protection in your security tool – to halt the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender lacks these elements for different factors. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that objective. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a great option that fits each of the specified qualities.5
Prior to the virus removal, it is important to boot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Winhelper.exe miner consumes a lot of processor capacity, 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 PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party software, just like the majority of non-critical 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.
Remove Winhelper.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 Winhelper.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Winhelper.exe
Description: The Winhelper.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Winhelper.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.
