I've noticed that many people encounter the problem of hidden mining on their machines and often don't know how to effectively remove a miner from their PC. Here's what I've discovered during my fight against this menace.

When you start to notice that your computer is acting strange – the graphics card is noisy, the CPU is loaded at 60-70% without any visible reason, and the laptop is getting hot – these are the first warning signs. Hidden mining can start in two ways. The first is cryptojacking, when malicious script is embedded directly into a website and activates when you open it. The second is a classic virus-trojan, which installs as a separate file and runs every time the system is turned on.

Such programs are especially dangerous for laptops. The graphics card begins to run at maximum, the cooler whines like a vacuum cleaner, and the hardware can fail after a few hours of background mining. Additionally, data traffic consumption increases, the browser slows down, and sometimes files and data disappear.

To understand whether your system is infected, you need to pay attention to a few things. Open Task Manager and look at the CPU load. If it’s constantly above 60% without any applications running – it’s time to look for a virus. Check if there are processes with strange names like asikadl.exe. Also, pay attention to the graphics card temperature – you can use a program like GPU-Z to check.

How to properly remove a miner from a PC? Start with an antivirus. Run a full system scan, for example with Dr. Web, which performs a deep analysis. But there’s a nuance – modern miners can add themselves to the list of trusted programs or even disable themselves when Task Manager is opened. Therefore, a comprehensive approach is needed.

Open the registry via Win+R, type regedit, and click OK. Press Ctrl+F and search for suspicious process names. They often look like random sets of characters. Delete all found entries and restart.

Another method is the Task Scheduler. Open it via Win+R, type taskschd.msc. Find the “Task Scheduler Library” folder and see which processes are set to run automatically when the PC starts. If you see something suspicious, disable that task with a right-click. For a more detailed check, you can use AnVir Task Manager.

After removing viruses, run Ccleaner or a similar tool to clean the system from junk. Then be sure to restart.

To protect your computer in the future, install a reliable antivirus and regularly update its databases. Before downloading any programs, verify their information. Enable antivirus and firewall when working online. Do not perform actions as an administrator unless necessary – if you run a miner with such rights, it will be much harder to get rid of it.

In your browser, disable JavaScript in the settings or use extensions like AdBlock and uBlock Origin. Chrome has built-in protection against mining – enable it in the “Privacy and Security” section. Add dangerous sites to your hosts file using lists from GitHub.

If you cannot remove the miner from your PC with standard methods, create a backup of important data and reinstall Windows. Every 2-3 months, it’s useful to run system recovery. And most importantly – do not overestimate the capabilities of just an antivirus. A combined approach with manual registry and scheduler checks yields much better results.