I recently encountered a problem that few people talk about — hidden mining viruses. It turns out they can secretly take over your PC and start using its resources for cryptocurrency mining. Moreover, antivirus software doesn’t always catch them. I decided to figure out how to check your PC for miners and protect yourself.

Mining viruses come in two types. The first is cryptojacking, where malicious script is embedded directly into a website. When you visit it, the script activates and starts mining using your computer. The second type is a classic virus file, which installs itself unnoticed and runs every time you turn on your PC. Sometimes, such viruses also steal wallet data.

How to tell if your computer is infected? Here’s what I pay attention to. If the graphics card starts making loud noise, the fan spins like crazy, and the card itself is hot — that’s the first warning. You can check the load with the GPU-Z program. The second sign is that the PC slows down. I open the Task Manager and look at the CPU usage. If it’s 60% or higher without any apparent reason, something’s wrong. I also notice that RAM is used up quickly, the browser runs slower, and internet traffic increases without reason. Another symptom is that processes with strange names like asikadl.exe appear in the Task Manager.

Now, about how to check the system. First — run your antivirus and do a full scan. Then use CCleaner to clean up the junk left by the virus. After that, I always restart the computer.

There are more subtle ways to check your PC for miners. I open the registry via Win+R, type regedit. You can find suspicious processes by searching (Ctrl+F). Look for tasks with strange names — usually a random string of characters. If you find something suspicious, delete it.

Another method is through the Task Scheduler. Press Win+R, type taskschd.msc. In the scheduler library, look at which processes are set to run automatically at startup. Pay attention to the “Triggers” and “Actions” tabs. If you see something strange, disable that task by right-clicking. If after disabling the CPU starts working normally, you’ve found the enemy. Then delete that task from startup completely.

For a deeper check, I use Dr. Web — it performs serious system diagnostics and can find even tricky viruses. Also helpful is AnVir Task Manager, which thoroughly checks all auto-start tasks.

As for protection, the main thing is prevention. I installed a clean Windows image and restore it periodically — every 2-3 months. I constantly update my antivirus. Before downloading a program, I check information about it. I scan all downloaded files with antivirus. I work with the firewall enabled. I added dangerous sites to the hosts file, using lists from GitHub.

A few more practical tips. I don’t run programs as administrator unless necessary — otherwise, the virus gets full access. Windows has the utility secpol.msc, where you can restrict the launch to only trusted software. I set a strong password on my router and disable remote access. I avoid visiting sites without SSL certificates (look for https). In the browser, I block JavaScript in the settings — this removes the possibility of malicious code running through the browser. Sure, some sites may not work perfectly after that, but security is more important. In Chrome, I enabled built-in protection against mining in the privacy settings. I installed AdBlock and uBlock to filter ads and malicious scripts.

When it becomes critical to check your computer for miners, the main thing is not to panic and methodically go through all these steps. Usually, a combination of antivirus, manual registry checks, and task scheduler review solves the problem. If nothing helps, there’s also the option of reinstalling the system, but that’s rarely necessary. Prevention and caution while browsing are the best defenses.