Wpitoolsautoupdate.exe process belongs to a harmful application that can properly be recognized as a coin miner trojan. That malware type uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer pretty much unusable as a result of high CPU usage.
What is Wpitoolsautoupdate.exe process?
Wpitoolsautoupdate.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Wpitoolsautoupdate.exe – Very high CPU as well as GPU use
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as critical as CPU for system work, so Wpitoolsautoupdate.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 Wpitoolsautoupdate.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Wpitoolsautoupdate.exe malware makes your computer overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, as all processor power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it pays attention to is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely suffer from incredibly sluggish efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a headache for a person that does a job online.
Wpitoolsautoupdate.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Wpitoolsautoupdate.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Dtaskmanagerbase.exe, Wpinotifystart.exe, Neofim.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Wpitoolsautoupdate.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary negative activity coin miners do to your PC. Wpitoolsautoupdate.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To conduct all malevolent operations correctly, it wrecks the security features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new entries – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be gone back to the original in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your computer’s performance, running at peak level for long times can trigger damage to your device as well as raise power bills. Hardware elements are created to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Compact and covered processor fan is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if affected while running, for example, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Wpitoolsautoupdate.exe can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Video cards are also tend to have increased wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely a bad case when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Wpitoolsautoupdate.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 dubious website as a part of a program. People that spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. For this reason, there is a huge temptation to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for each installation. Prior to criticizing these individuals for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid paying for the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus program and new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Wpitoolsautoupdate.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-crucial operating system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the computer 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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