Fake Explorer. Exe Virus Removal

What is Explorer.exe process?

The names of the executive file can be diverse, however, the consequences are generally identical. Since coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware power of your personal computer to run this process. This malware does not care about the fact that you probably want to make use of your device for other tasks – it will continuously consume over 80% of your processor power.

Explorer.exe – Extremely high CPU as well as GPU use

Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as important as CPU for system work, so Explorer.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It sometimes can result in sad consequences.

Crypto mining is a term that means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is an integral part of any project based on blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful computer is needed. Exactly, the GPU is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms usually consist of tens and hundreds of graphic cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “general” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Fraudsters who make a profit via this coin miner use someones’ PCs instead, even if they are used for regular activity.1

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

  • Microsoft Defender is stopped;
  • CPU and GPU is loaded at 80-90% exactly after the system start
  • Cooling fans are running at high speed and create a lot of noise
  • A single process in Task Manager consumes all CPU and GPU power
  • How dangerous is the Explorer.exe miner?

    Initially, Explorer.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, as all processor power is consumed by 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 the browser is open, you will likely struggle with extremely slow performance. 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.

    Explorer.exe Technical Summary.

    File NameExplorer.exe
    TypeTrojan Coin Miner
    Detection NameTrojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution MethodSoftware bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behaviorDefault.exe, St.exe, Xxx.exe
    RemovalDownload and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Explorer.exe removal.

    “Visible” damage is not a solitary bad activity coin miners do to your computer. Explorer.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To complete all malevolent functions properly, it wrecks the security components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new entries – they are added by this coin miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments shall be thrown back to the original in the process of system recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides decreasing your PC’s performance, running at peak level for long times can cause damage to your device as well as increase power bills. Hardware elements are designed to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.

    Tiny and covered CPU cooling system is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broken if touched while working, for example, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Explorer.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failure2. Video cards also tend to have very fast wear when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely an unwanted case when the performance of your video card plunges 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.

    Elena Rostova

    Elena Rostova

    Lead Health, Wellness & Medical Journalist

    Elena Rostova holds a Master's degree in Public Health Journalism. She covers groundbreaking medical research, holistic wellness trends, mental health awareness, and nutritional science.

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