Recently, I noticed that my computer started acting strangely—my CPU was at 70%, my graphics card was humming like a vacuum cleaner, and in the task manager there were a bunch of unfamiliar processes. It turned out I had picked up a hidden mining virus. Now I’m figuring out how to remove the miner from my PC and prevent this from happening in the future.

It turns out there are two types of such viruses. The first is cryptojacking, embedded directly into a website via a script. You enter an infected page, and suddenly your processor is already working for someone else. The second type is a classic virus file that quietly installs itself and runs every time you boot up. Sometimes you come across really nasty variants that also steal data from wallets.

When I realized I had a problem, I immediately checked the main signs. The graphics card was clearly overheating—the fan was running at full speed. RAM was filled up, and internet traffic was being wasted. The browser was lagging. Everything pointed to the need to urgently remove the virus miner.

I started with something simple—I ran an antivirus and let it do a full scan. Then I went through CCleaner to clean all the junk out of the system. I rebooted. It helped, but not completely.

Then I decided to dig deeper. I opened the registry via Win+R and regedit, and searched for suspicious processes. I found several entries with ridiculous names like asikadl.exe. I deleted them. Then I checked the task scheduler via taskschd.msc—there were also tasks that ran on startup and were clearly malicious. I disabled and deleted them.

After that, the CPU load returned to normal. But I didn’t stop there. I installed AnVir Task Manager for a more detailed check of the auto-start entries. For a final cleanup, I used Dr.Web—it does a deep scan of the system and finds what ordinary antivirus programs miss.

Now I know how to protect my PC. First, I regularly update the antivirus databases. Second, before downloading anything, I check information about the program. I scan all downloaded files with antivirus before I run them. I work with the firewall enabled.

I added dangerous sites to the hosts file using lists from GitHub. I blocked JavaScript in the browser—that removes the possibility of browser mining, even though the sites run a little slower. In Chrome, I enabled the built-in mining protection in the privacy settings.

Another important measure is this: I never run programs as an administrator unless it’s necessary. If the miner gets those permissions, getting rid of it will be insanely difficult. I set a password on Windows, limited the rights of other users, and installed a strong password on the router.

How do you remove a miner from a PC if it’s already there? The main thing is not to panic and to act systematically. Antivirus, CCleaner, checking the registry, the task scheduler, AnVir—this is the basic arsenal. If nothing helps, it’s worth downloading an image of clean Windows and restoring the system. It’s drastic, but effective.

Now I periodically check my computer so I can notice the problem in time. It’s better to spend an hour on prevention than to suffer later while removing a mining virus. And yes, I installed AdBlock and uBlock—they block not only ads, but also malicious scripts.