I've noticed that many people encounter the problem of hidden mining on their computers but don't know how to properly remove the miner. I decided to share what I’ve learned about this issue.

The most unpleasant thing about such viruses is that they operate unnoticed. The computer starts to slow down, the graphics card whines like crazy, and you don’t understand what’s going on. It turns out that some Trojan is using your resources to mine cryptocurrency. This can be either a script directly on an infected website (cryptojacking) or a full-fledged program that has installed itself into the system.

How to tell if you've been infected? First, pay attention to the symptoms. The processor runs at 60% or higher even at rest, the graphics card heats up and makes noise, RAM is fully used, the browser slows down. Sometimes you notice files disappearing or strange processes appearing in the task manager with unclear names like asikadl.exe.

To remove the miner, you need to act systematically. First, run a full antivirus scan. After that, be sure to use Ccleaner or a similar program to clean junk files. But antivirus doesn’t always catch new miners—they’ve learned to add themselves to trusted programs.

Therefore, I check the registry manually. Press Win+R, type regedit, then Ctrl+F and search for suspicious processes by name. Delete everything found and restart. The second method is through the Task Scheduler. Open taskschd.msc, look at what tasks run on startup. If something looks suspicious, disable or delete it.

For more complex cases, I use Dr. Web—it performs a deep scan and catches what a regular antivirus might miss. AnVir Task Manager also helps to understand startup items.

To protect your computer in the future, here’s my advice: install a reliable antivirus and update its databases regularly. Don’t visit dubious sites without an SSL certificate (look for the https icon). Block JavaScript in your browser—that removes the possibility of browser-based mining, although sites will load slower. Chrome has built-in protection against mining in its privacy settings.

Also important: never run unknown programs as administrator, don’t forget your Windows and router passwords, and restrict other users’ rights. Every 2-3 months, I reinstall a clean Windows image—that’s a sure way to avoid problems.

If you’ve already been infected—don’t panic, but act quickly. The sooner you find and remove the miner, the less damage your hardware will sustain. Laptops are especially vulnerable—they can fail after just a few hours of active hidden mining.