What Is Powershell.exe Virus and How to Get Rid of It? [MiniTool Tips]

If your computer is acting oddly or there are a number of pop-out banner ads on your desktop, then your computer may be infected with some viruses. And there are some very tricky viruses that can invade your computer and then disguise themselves as the genuine files. Powershell.exe virus is one of the most dangerous viruses, then keep reading to find more information.

What Is Powershell.exe Virus?

To begin with, you need to know what Powershell.exe is. The genuine Powershell.exe file is a critical part of the Windows system and it is located in a subfolder of C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\.

As you can see, Powershell.exe is an executable file related to PowerShell and it doesn’t do harm to your computer in a normal state.

So what is Powershell.exe virus? It is a latent perilous form of Trojan that aims at stealing your data and information. And your activities on your computer can be disrupted by it. Sometimes the culprit of your computer running slow is Powershell.exe virus.

Therefore, in order to avoid things getting worse, you should remove Powershell.exe virus as soon as possible.

How to Know If You Have Powershell.exe Virus?

Is it easy to find whether your computer is infected with the Powershell.exe virus Windows 10? Actually, it depends on its impact on your operating system.

If a hacker keeps tracking your data and keystrokes by letting Powershell.exe virus run in the background, then you can hardly find it out. But if you have strange pop-up ads or banners showing on your computer, or if your PC is running slow, then you can easily tell.

Therefore, you need to pay close attention to the security of your computer. If it's running very slowly or if there are icons appearing that you don't remember you have installed, then your computer may have been infected with the Powershell.exe virus.

How Did You Get the Powershell.exe Virus?

Your computer can be infected with the Powershell.exe virus via a lot of ways. I have listed some of ways below:

• Suspicious software downloads that you have made.
• Spam emails containing malicious attachments or files.
• Accept notifications on your browsers.
• Any other suspicious source.

How to Get Rid of the Powershell.exe Virus?

How to remove Powershell.exe virus? There are three useful methods for you, so keep reading to get the detailed information.

Method 1: Use Antivirus Software and Malware Removal Tool

The first and the most efficient method you should try to remove the Windows Powershell virus is to use antivirus software and malware removal tool.

There is a powerful built-in feature on Windows 10 you can use – Windows Defender. You can use it to scan your computer. Although running Windows Defender to scan your computer may take you a long time, it is good at Powershell.exe virus removal Windows 10. And you can also try to use other powerful antivirus software such as McAfee.

You can read this post - Free Ways to Schedule a Scan in Windows Defender Antivirus to get the detailed information to make a regular virus scan.

Similarly, you can also try to install a malware removal tool that can help you detect viruses and malware. And you can remove the viruses easily with this tool.

Method 2: Run System Restore

How to remove Windows Powershell virus? If you have created a restore point in advance, then you can also try to run System Restore to return to a previous point before you got the Powershell.exe virus. But you should choose a restore point that you definitely know that there was no Powershell.exe virus on your PC.

Here is the way to run System Restore:

Step 1: Press the Windows + R keys at the same time to open the Run dialog box.

Step 2: Type rstrui and then click Yes to open the System Restore menu.

Step 3: Once you arrive at the initial System Restore screen, click Next to continue.

Step 4: Check Show more restore points, then choose a restore point that was created previously and click Next.

Step 5: In the next window, confirm your restore point and click Finish. And then click Yes. Your computer will be restarted to apply these changes.

After you finish these steps, you can get rid of Powershell.exe virus.

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Method 3: Reinstall Your Operating System

If none of the methods can help you to get rid of the Powershell.exe virus, then you can only try to reinstall your operating system.

Here are the detailed instructions of reinstalling your system:

Step 1: Insert a USB drive to another working computer and then download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool to the USB drive.

Step 2: Create installation media and then unplug the USB drive from the working computer. You can read the post: A Complete Guide to Windows 10 Media Creation Tool: How to Use to learn how to create the installation media.

Step 3: Insert the installation media to your computer and then change the boot order to make your computer boot from it.

Step 4: Choose the Language to install, Time and currency format and Keyboard or input method that you want. Then click Next.

Step 5: Click Install Now and then choose I don’t have a product key.

Step 6: Select the operating system you want to install and then click Next.

Step 7: Accept the license terms and then choose either types of installation: Upgrade: Install Windows and keep files, settings, and applications and Custom: Install Windows only (advanced).

Step 8: Choose the partition with the current installation of Windows. Click Next.

Step 9: Click Install.

After these operations have been done step by step, your computer will reboot for several times during the installation. And you should remember that never turn off your computer in the process.

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How to Avoid Getting the Powershell.exe Virus Again?

You can try several methods to lower the chances of getting the Powershell.exe virus again and even any other virus. I have listed them below:

Make your malware protection and antivirus software up to date.

There are many new virus definitions that will be announced, so keeping your malware protection and antivirus software up to date can make your computer know how to find new viruses and malware based threats.

Be vigilant about new software.

It is pretty critical to know the source of the software you download because some disreputable websites may contain viruses such as Powershell.exe virus.

Visit well-known websites.

When you visit some suspicious websites, your computer can also be infected with viruses. And you should never click the wrong link.

Never click banner ads.

You may notice that there is a pop-out banner when you visit a website, but you need to keep in mind that you should never click it. And it is safer to visit a website without pop-out banners.

From this post, I know how to judge whether I have Powershell.exe, and I find some useful methods to get rid of the virus as well as avoid getting the virus again.Click to Tweet

Make a Backup to Protect Your Computer

As you can see, it is very likely to be infected with some dangerous viruses. And sometimes your computer may lose data or even go crashes because of the viruses. Therefore, in order to protect your computer, you are supposed to make backups regularly.

Speaking of backup, I strongly recommend you to use MiniTool ShadowMaker – a piece of professional and brilliant backup and restore software. If you back up your system with this software, then you can restore your system easily and quickly, eliminating the need to reinstall the system.

MiniTool ShadowMaker has a lot of wonderful and useful features, and I have listed some below:

• Backup feature allows you to back up files and folders, disks and partitions, and even the operating system. And there are four different backup locations that you can choose: Administrative, Libraries, Computer, and Shared.
• Restore feature allows you to restore everything you have backed up before.
• Sync feature allows you to sync files and folders to other locations.
• Disk Clone feature allows you to create a bootable external hard drive and even clone simple volumes in the dynamic disks.

And another advantage of this software is that you can use it for free within 30 days, so why don’t you just download it and have a try?

Free Download

Now follow the instructions step by step to back up your operating system with MiniTool ShadowMaker:

Step 1: Download and launch MiniTool ShadowMaker, then click Keep Trial to continue.

Step 2: Navigate to the Backup page. In default, MiniTool ShadowMaker backs up your operating system and chooses the destination automatically. But if you want to change the source and destination, you can click SOURCE and DESTINATION.

Step 3: Click Options on the Backup page and then Schedule Settings, then switch it from OFF to ON (it is disabled by default). You see four schedule settings here: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and On Event. After you finish the schedule setting, remember to click OK to save settings.

Step 4: After you have confirmed the backup source and backup destination, click Back Up Now to start the automatic backup.

Then you just need to wait for MiniTool ShadowMaker to finish the operating system backup.

Bottom Line

To sum up, this post has introduced what Powershell.exe virus is. And you can know whether you have Powershell.exe virus and how to get rid of it. What’s more, there are several ways you can adopt to avoid getting the virus again.

If you have any better suggestions to deal with Powershell.exe virus or have any confusion about the methods, leave a comment below or send an email to [email protected].

Powershell.exe Virus FAQ