Microsoftapi.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

What is Microsoftapi.exe process?

As I have mentioned previously, Microsoftapi.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file may be diverse, but the impacts are almost always the same. Because coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all available hardware capacity of your PC to perform this procedure. This virus does not pay attention to the fact that you may need to make use of your machine for other activities – it will continuously take over 80% of your CPU power.

Microsoftapi.exe – Very high CPU/GPU usage

Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will likely struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as critical as processor for system work, so Microsoftapi.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It sometimes can result in unhappy consequences.

Crypto mining term means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic element of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful computer is needed. Exactly, the graphic card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms usually consist of tens and hundreds of GPUs to complete their task efficiently. Such systems are not usable for “general” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Fraudsters who make profit via this coin miner use someones’ hardware instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.²

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

How dangerous is the Microsoftapi.exe miner?

Firstly, Microsoftapi.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, because all processor power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your demands, all it pays attention to is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely experience extremely slow efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person who does a job online.

Microsoftapi.exe Technical Summary.

“Visible” harm is not a single bad thing coin miners do to your PC. Microsoftapi.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To perform all malevolent operations correctly, it ruins the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these changes shall be thrown back to the initial state in the process of computer recovery.

Hardware effects of coin miner activity

Besides making your PC slow, running at peak level for long times can trigger damage to your device as well as raise power bills. Hardware elements are created to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.

Compact and covered processor fan is hard to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if touched while working, for example, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Microsoftapi.exe can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure³. GPUs are also prone to have increased wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is surely a bad case when the performance of your video card plunges 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.

How did I get Microsoftapi.exe coin miner virus?

Coin miners are one of the most common malevolent programs through “major” viruses. Adware frequently acts as a carrier for Microsoftapi.exe malware injection: it demonstrates you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that around 30% of all viruses spread through the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Microsoftapi.exe is right with them.⁴

The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

One more way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the unreliable web page as a part of a program. People who spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to earn money. For this reason, there is a very big lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for every installation. Prior to criticizing these guys for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus software and new parts for your computer.

How to remove the Microsoftapi.exe miner from my PC?

Getting rid of such a virus requires using specific software. Proper antivirus should have high efficiency at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to make no problems with utilization also on weak systems. Furthermore, it is better to have on-run security in your protection tool – to halt the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender lacks these features for different factors. That’s why I’d advise you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that reason. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a superb choice that fits each of the specified characteristics.⁵

Prior to the malware removal, it is important to reboot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Microsoftapi.exe miner takes a lot of CPU power, it is required to stop it before launching the security program. Otherwise, your scan will last for years, even though the GridinSoft program is pretty lightweight.

Booting the PC into Safe Mode with Networking

Press the Start button, then choose Power, and click on Reboot while holding the Shift key on the keyboard.

Windows will reboot into recovery mode. In that mode, choose Troubleshoot→ Startup Settings→ Safe Mode with Networking. Press the corresponding button on your keyboard to choose that option.

When your computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, along with the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the system without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

Remove Microsoftapi.exe coin miner virus with GridinSoft Anti-Malware

Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware. You can use this anti-malware program for free during its 6-day trial period. In that term, all functions are available, and it takes no payments to remove malware from your system.

After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.

When the scan is finished, press the Clean Now button to remove all detected elements from your system. This procedure takes less than a minute.

Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.

References

1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
2. Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
3. About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
4. Read more about various malware type on GridinSoft Threat Encyclopedia.
5. Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

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