Charge Trojan: what it is and how to remove it

If you did not install Charge Trojan yourself and it is not part of your hardware or a program you rely on, yes. Uninstalling an unwanted program does not harm Windows. Before you do, search the exact name and publisher to be sure it is not a driver tool, a printer utility or a game launcher with an odd name.

Then remove it from Settings, Apps, Installed apps. Ignore any offers or warnings in its uninstaller about losing protection or performance. Afterwards check Startup apps and your browsers for leftovers, and restart once to confirm that it does not reinstall itself.

First restart the PC and try again, because the program may have been running and locked its own files. If the uninstaller is missing or fails, start Windows in Safe Mode, where most third-party programs do not start, and remove Charge Trojan from Installed apps there.

If it still refuses, delete its startup entry and its scheduled task, restart, and try once more. A program that actively prevents removal is behaving like malware, so finish with a Microsoft Defender offline scan. Avoid third-party uninstallers offered on search ads; several of them are unwanted programs themselves.

Yes, it takes little time and removes doubt. Charge Trojan itself usually stays on one PC, but the download that carried it may have been copied to other computers, shared drives may hold the same installer, and an attacker who had access could have tried saved passwords on other devices.

Run a full scan on every Windows PC in the home or office, check shared folders for the original download, and change Wi-Fi and router passwords if they were stored on the infected machine.

Not necessarily Charge Trojan, but it is a warning sign. These are legitimate remote support tools, and criminals use them as ready-made backdoors, especially after tech support scams or fake invoice calls.

If you did not install it and no one you trust set it up, uninstall it, change passwords from a clean device and check your bank account. If someone connected to your PC through it, follow the steps for remote access trojans and consider a Windows reset. Installed apps sorted by date shows when it appeared.

Often you do not, which is the point of a trojan. Possible signs are an antivirus alert naming Charge Trojan or a generic trojan detection, unknown programs or scheduled tasks, processes with random names in Task Manager, browser extensions you did not add, security settings turned off, slower performance, or account alerts about logins from unknown places.

The reliable check is a full scan followed by Microsoft Defender's offline scan. If you recently ran a crack, a fake installer or a command a website told you to paste, scan even without symptoms.

Report it if you lost money, if accounts were taken over, if you are a business, or if the trojan came through a scam call. A police or national cybercrime report gives you a reference number for your bank and insurer and helps link cases.

You do not need to report a trojan that antivirus blocked before it ran. Before reporting, write down the dates, the detection name, file names and any messages or transactions linked to the attack; screenshots of antivirus alerts are useful evidence. The country list is in the report section above.

Not for anything that matters. As long as the program behind charge Trojan in the list of installed apps runs, it can see what you type and what the browser stores, and it may download more malware. Disconnect the PC from the internet while you remove it, and do your banking, e-mail and password changes from another device.

Once the offline scan finds nothing and the sign does not return after a few restarts, normal use is fine. If the scan keeps finding new items, or you cannot remove the startup entry, a reset of Windows is the safer choice.

Usually not. A thorough clean-up is enough when the offline scan finds nothing afterwards and you do not see charge Trojan in the list of installed apps again. A reset is the safer choice if an attacker had remote control, if security tools were switched off, or if detections come back after every clean-up.

Windows 11 can reset itself without a USB stick under Settings > System > Recovery > Reset this PC. Copy documents and photos out first and scan the copies. A reset does not change passwords or undo stolen data, so the account steps still apply.

That is not known yet. Charge Trojan has been reported by people who saw charge Trojan in the list of installed apps, but no sample has been analysed publicly, so security companies have not assigned it to a family. The name you see may be a file or program name chosen by the authors, not a family name.

This does not stop you from removing it: the startup points, the offline scan and the account steps are the same for most families of this type. If Microsoft Defender or another scanner gives the file a detection name, write it down; that name is the best clue to the family and is useful when you report the incident.

Fortect scans Windows for malware and unwanted programs and repairs the system files and settings they change, and its free scan shows what it finds on your PC before you decide anything.

For Charge Trojan, follow the plan above as well: the browser steps take back permissions and settings that no scanner treats as a threat, and uninstalling the program that brought it removes the source.

Run Microsoft Defender's full scan and, if anything was found, its offline scan as a second opinion. If the symptoms are gone after the plan and both scans are clean, there is nothing more to do.