Obliterating Mingc.exe Miner (Trojan Horse)

What is Mingc.exe? And how does it function?

Mingc.exe is classified as a Trojan horse that exploits a victim’s CPU and GPU power of an infected PC to mine for digital currency such as Bitcoin, Monero, Ethereum, and so on. As soon as it enters the system, it will execute an autostart that will launch a VBScript called Browge.vbs which will download and run the Trojan miner on the infected PC. And once the miner is executed, it will connect to a pool at 144.76.201.175.8080 so that it can start mining digital currency.
The configuration for the miner supposed to be using only 20% of the CPU power on the affected computer. However, Mingc.exe will try to use all the available CPU power. And during its infiltration, it may create files which are placed in the following location of the infected PC:

%AppData%
%Temp%
%Roaming%
%Common%
%{User’s Profile}%
%System32%

Cybercriminals are always on the lookout for ways to earn money at the expense of someone and Mingc.exe is one of the tools that they currently employ to do their dirty work. Threats of this kind should be removed from the infected system as it will risk having your hardware malfunctioning due to overheating as this Trojan miner will try to use all your CPU and GPU power. In addition, it will also greatly affect your electricity bills which will rise steeply.
There really is no outward indication that this miner is running on your system unless you look close enough on the processes that runs on your Task Manager. Here are some symptoms that you can use to determine if your PC is infected with Mingc.exe miner:

You will notice a process on your Task Manager named mingc.exe which uses 80% to 99% of the CPU power.
Slow Windows performance – you will find that Windows minimizes and maximizes slowly – your games run slower and your videos stutter.
Your programs won’t launch as quickly as before.
A general slowdown of your PC.

How is Mingc.exe distributed online?
Mingc.exe can be distributed using various methods. One of which is through spam emails containing malicious attachments or hyperlinks. So you have to beware of emails that are trying to convince you to download the file attachments especially when these files types are .docm, .vbs, .wsf, .js and .exe. Moreover, this Trojan miner could also spread on malicious web pages that are set to initiate an automatic download of the Trojan horse on each visit.
To obliterate Mingc.exe from your PC, make sure you follow the removal guide below.
Step 1: Open your Task Manager by tapping Ctrl + Shift + Esc on your keyboard.

Step 2: Once the Task Manager is opened, go to the Processes tab and locate the VMProtectss.exe and VMProtectks.exe processes and end each one of them.

Step 3: Close the Task Manager and open Control Panel by pressing the Windows key + R, then type in appwiz.cpl and then tap Enter or click OK.

Step 4: Look for Mingc.exe Miner and then uninstall it.

Step 5: Close Control Panel and then tap the Win + E keys to open File Explorer.
Step 6: Navigate to the following locations.

%HOMEDRIVE%\Applications\
%WINDIR%\Tasks
%WINDIR%\System32\Tasks
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads
%USERPROFILE%\Desktop
%TEMP%

Step 7: Look for the malicious files created by Mingc.exe Miner and delete them.
Step 8: Close the File Explorer.
The next step below is not recommended for you if you don’t know how to navigate the Registry Editor. Making registry changes can highly impact your computer. So it is highly advised to use PC Cleaner Pro instead to get rid of the entries that the PUP created. Unlike Mingc.exe Miner, PC Cleaner Pro is a trusted program that helps in improving your computer’s overall performance by repairing any registry issues as well as optimizes your system. If you are not familiar with the Windows Registry skip to Step 14 onwards. However, if you are well-versed in making registry adjustments, then you can proceed to step 10.
Step 9: Open the Registry Editor, to do so, tap Win + R and type in regedit and then press enter.

Step 10: Go to the following locations and delete all the registry keys in it.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VMProtectss.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tree\exe

Step 12: Close the Registry Editor.
Step 13: Empty your Recycle Bin and restart your PC.
Once you got rid of Mingc.exe Miner from your PC, follow the advanced guide below to get rid of it’s the files it has created.
Perform a full system scan using SpyRemover Pro. To do so, follow these steps:

Turn on your computer. If it’s already on, you have to reboot
After that, the BIOS screen will be displayed, but if Windows pops up instead, reboot your computer and try again. Once you’re on the BIOS screen, repeat pressing F8, by doing so the Advanced Option shows up.

To navigate the Advanced Option use the arrow keys and select Safe Mode with Networking then hit
Windows will now load the SafeMode with Networking.
Press and hold both R key and Windows key.

If done correctly, the Windows Run Box will show up.
Type in explorer http://www.fixmypcfree.com/install/spyremoverpro

A single space must be in between explorer and http. Click OK.

A dialog box will be displayed by Internet Explorer. Click Run to begin downloading the program. The installation will start automatically once a download is done.