Minerd.exe Miner Malware – How to Remove It Completely from Your PC

This article has been created in order to explain what is minerd.exe Cryptocurrency miner virus and how to remove it completely from your computer system.

Miner malware has seen quite the detection rate the last few months. The viruses have begin evolving and have newer and newer features added to them. Minerd.exe which is the process of a miner malware is not an exclusion to these series. The cryptocurrency miner malware aims to perform series of malicious activities, which result in overloading your CPU or GPU (or both) in order to generate cryptocurrency tokens for the cyber-criminals who are behind this nasty infection. In the event that your computer has been attacked by the Minerd.exe cryptocurrency miner, reccomendations are to read this article and learn how to remove this malware and restore your PC back to a working state.

Threat Summary

Name	minerd.exe
Type	CryptoCurrency miner malware.
Short Description	Aims to mine for different cryptocrurencies, using your computer’s resources.
Symptoms	Your computer becomes slow, freezes at times and it’s cooling fans run constantly. The process minerd.exe may or may not be encountered in Windows Task Manager.
Distribution Method	Spam Emails, Email Attachments, Executable files
Detection Tool	See If Your System Has Been Affected by minerd.exe Download Malware Removal Tool
User Experience	Join Our Forum to Discuss minerd.exe.

Minerd.exe CryptoCurrency Miner – How Does It Infect

The minerd.exe miner Trojan uses the standard methods of propagation. The virus may be encountered as a fake type of file that may exist in the form of an executable. The fake files it may resemble are usually programs, games, installers of programs or game patches and cracks. The encountering of software license activators is also a possibility.

In addition to pretending to be a legitimate file that is uploaded on suspicious sites, the minerd.exe Trojan may also exist in other places, like as a fake document that may be sent to you by spammed e-mail messages like the following:

• Fake invoice.
• Receipt of an order.
• Fake order confirmation.

Minerd.exe Miner Trojan – Malicious Activity

The main activity of the minerd.exe Trojan is to drop it’s malicious files and activate them as an administrator on the victim’s computer after infecting it. The files may be located in the following Windows directories:

• %Temp%
• %Local%
• %AppData%
• %Roaming%
• %Windows%
• %LocalLow%

In additiont to this, the minerd.exe Trojan is also the type of threat that adds registry entries in the following Windows Registry sub-keys in order to elevate it’s privileges and run automatically on system boot:

→ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\ScreenSaveTimeOut
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

Furthermore, the minerd.exe ransomware virus may also begin to perform other activities on the computer of the victim, typical to any Trojan horse. Such include the following:

• Download updates of itself to stay undetected for longer periods of time.
• Control your internet connection.
• Sniff internet traffic.
• Take screenshots on your PC.
• Log your keystrokes.
• Steal your files.
• Obtain financial information.
• Copy your secret passwords and logins to websites.

The main purpose of the minerd.exe Trojan however is to connect your computer to a mining pool (the image below). Such mining pools are often created to make it possible that the computers infected by the attacker work together to calculate the so-called hashes. Such hashes are linked to the cryptocurrency wallet of the cyber-criminal who is behind minerd.exe miner and he or she generates tokens at the expense of the important resources on your computer. This may result in multiple negative consequences for your PC and besides bad performance it’s components may also break down if you let the minerd.exe virus remain on it for longer periods of time.

How to Remove minerd.exe CryptoCurrency Miner

In order to fully erase this cryptocurrency miner malware, it is recommended to follow either the manual or the automatic removal instructions below. In case you lack the experience in manually removing amlware, like the minerd.exe virus, experts advise doing so automatically by downloading and installing an advanced anti-malware software. Such is guaranteed to scan your PC and get rid of any malware and malicious objects plus protect it against future infections from the likes of minerd.exe virus.

Manually delete minerd.exe from your computer

Note! Substantial notification about the minerd.exe threat: Manual removal of minerd.exe requires interference with system files and registries. Thus, it can cause damage to your PC. Even if your computer skills are not at a professional level, don’t worry. You can do the removal yourself just in 5 minutes, using a malware removal tool.

1. Boot Your PC In Safe Mode to isolate and remove minerd.exe files and objects

Boot Your PC Into Safe Mode

1. For Windows 7,XP and Vista. 2. For Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. Fix registry entries created by minerd.exe on your PC.

For Windows XP, Vista, 7 systems:

1. Remove all CDs and DVDs, and then Restart your PC from the “Start” menu.
2. Select one of the two options provided below:

– For PCs with a single operating system: Press “F8” repeatedly after the first boot screen shows up during the restart of your computer. In case the Windows logo appears on the screen, you have to repeat the same task again.

– For PCs with multiple operating systems: Тhe arrow keys will help you select the operating system you prefer to start in Safe Mode. Press “F8” just as described for a single operating system.

3. As the “Advanced Boot Options” screen appears, select the Safe Mode option you want using the arrow keys. As you make your selection, press “Enter“.

4. Log on to your computer using your administrator account

While your computer is in Safe Mode, the words “Safe Mode” will appear in all four corners of your screen.

Step 1: Open the Start Menu

Step 2: Whilst holding down Shift button, click on Power and then click on Restart.
Step 3: After reboot, the aftermentioned menu will appear. From there you should choose Troubleshoot.

Step 4: You will see the Troubleshoot menu. From this menu you can choose Advanced Options.

Step 5: After the Advanced Options menu appears, click on Startup Settings.

Step 6: Click on Restart.

Step 7: A menu will appear upon reboot. You should choose Safe Mode by pressing its corresponding number and the machine will restart.

Some malicious scripts may modify the registry entries of your computer to change different settings. This is why manual clean up of your Windows Registry Database is strongly recommended. Since the tutorial on how to do this is a bit lenghty, we recommend following our instructive article about fixing registry entries.

2. Find malicious files created by minerd.exe on your PC

Find malicious files created by minerd.exe

1. For Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. 2. For Windows 7,XP and Vista.

For Newer Windows Operating Systems

Step 1:

On your keyboard press  + R and write explorer.exe in the Run text box and then click on the Ok button.

Step 2:

Click on your PC from the quick access bar. This is usually an icon with a monitor and its name is either “My Computer”, “My PC” or “This PC” or whatever you have named it.

Step 3:

Navigate to the search box in the top-right of your PC’s screen and type “fileextension:” and after which type the file extension. If you are looking for malicious executables, an example may be “fileextension:exe”. After doing that, leave a space and type the file name you believe the malware has created. Here is how it may appear if your file has been found:

N.B. We recommend to wait for the green loading bar in the navination box to fill up in case the PC is looking for the file and hasn’t found it yet.

For Older Windows Operating Systems

In older Windows OS’s the conventional approach should be the effective one:

Step 1:

Click on the Start Menu icon (usually on your bottom-left) and then choose the Search preference.

Step 2:

After the search window appears, choose More Advanced Options from the search assistant box. Another way is by clicking on All Files and Folders.

Step 3:

After that type the name of the file you are looking for and click on the Search button. This might take some time after which results will appear. If you have found the malicious file, you may copy or open its location by right-clicking on it.

Now you should be able to discover any file on Windows as long as it is on your hard drive and is not concealed via special software.

Automatically remove minerd.exe by downloading an advanced anti-malware program

1. Remove minerd.exe with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool

Remove minerd.exe with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool

1. Install SpyHunter to scan for and remove minerd.exe.2. Scan with SpyHunter to Detect and Remove minerd.exe.

Step 1:Click on the “Download” button to proceed to SpyHunter’s download page.

Download

Malware Removal Tool

It is highly recommended to run a scan before purchasing the full version of the software to make sure that the current version of the malware can be detected by SpyHunter.

Step 2: Guide yourself by the download instructions provided for each browser.
Step 3: After you have installed SpyHunter, wait for it to automatically update.

Step1: After the update process has finished, click on the ‘Scan Computer Now’ button.

Step2: After SpyHunter has finished scanning your PC for any minerd.exe files, click on the ‘Fix Threats’ button to remove them automatically and permanently.

Step3: Once the intrusions on your PC have been removed, it is highly recommended to restart it.

Optional: Using Alternative Anti-Malware Tools

Remove minerd.exe Using Other Alternative Tools

STOPZilla Anti Malware

1. Download and Install STOPZilla Anti-malware to Scan for And Remove minerd.exe.
Step 1: Download STOPZilla by clicking here.
Step 2: A pop-up window will appear. Click on the ‘Save File’ button. If it does not, click on the Download button and save it afterwards.

Step 3: After you have downloaded the setup, simply open it.
Step 4: The installer should appear. Click on the ‘Next’ button.

Step 5: Check the ‘I accept the agreement’ check circle if not checked if you accept it and click the ‘Next’ button once again.

Step 6: Review and click on the ‘Install’ button.

Step 7: After the installation process has completed click on the ‘Finish’ button.

2. Scan your PC with STOPZilla Anti Malware to remove all minerd.exe associated files completely.
Step 1: Launch STOPZilla if you haven’t launched it after install.
Step 2: Wait for the software to automatically scan and then click on the ‘Repair Now’ button. If it does not scan automatically, click on the ‘Scan Now’ button.

Step 3: After the removal of all threats and associated objects, you should Restart your PC.

Vencislav Krustev

A network administrator and malware researcher at SensorsTechForum with passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cyber security. Strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.

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