Computer Tip of the Day: Rescuing Your Computer from Ransomware

Ransomware is a piece of software that sits somewhere between viruses and general programs.

It is a type of program that can be used to lock your computer and make it close to impossible to gain access to your computer again until you agree to pay the person responsible money to release your computer to them with no guarantee they will agree to release your computer access to you again once you pay them.

While it would be ideal to not have to deal with ransomware in the first place and simply avoid having it get onto your computer at all, this will not always be possible and it is important to understand what you can do to see off ransomware if it does end up on your computer.

Removing Ransomware

Removing ransomware doesn’t have to be difficult and it can be as straightforward as you want it to be. The first step is recognizing that it is ransomware because you might well look at a virus and think it is ransomware. Recognizing that you have ransomware is the first step in removing it.

The important things to keep in mind here are that Microsoft will not call you at your house, the software the ransomware claims to represent will not be your antivirus and anyone who actually wants to help will not disable your computer access until you pay them.

Once you recognize that you have a ransomware infected computer, it is time to start the process of removing it.

The first thing to try is also something that can only be done if you are not using a Windows 8 or 10 computer: running it in safe mode with command line access and rolling back to a previous system restore point using the command line to open the restore utility, select a point to roll back to and restart your computer in the standard mode to see if it worked.

However, if you are using Windows 8 or 10 or have disabled system restore points then you need another method. The best alternative is to find Windows Live Repair CDs online and burn the associated files onto your blank CD or USB drive.

Once that is done, power down your computer after you insert the CD or USB drive into your computer. Now, restart and hit the button that will open your boot menu and choose to boot from your CD or USB Drive. From there, just follow all the recommendations to remove the offending files and respond to all alerts.

When this is done, remove the USB or CD and restart your computer. Your computer should now be free of all ransomware and you are done!

Ransomware is a serious problem that needs to be addressed ASAP. If you follow these tips, you should be able to remove it from your machine with few issues.