“We have encrypted all your personal files” Virus Removal

How to Remove “We have encrypted all your personal files” Ransomware?

Have you heard about those computer viruses that lock your files and want money to restore them? They are called ransomware and are the most dreaded infections out there. “We have encrypted all your personal files,” that’s what reads the latest member of their family. This parasite is a typical win-locker. It seems that hackers are focusing on those viruses nowadays, however, users are not informed well enough. The ransomware viruses act quite the same. The use trickery to sneak into their victims’ computers. Once on board, the virus will initiate a full system scan. It is looking for your files. And it will locate them all. Then, the ransomware will encrypt them with a strong algorithm. You will be able to see the icons of your files, but you won’t be able to open or use them. All this will happen in complete silence. You won’t realize what is going on until it is too late. Only after those processes are complete will the win-locker notify you about its presence. It will display a ransom note. Oh, those obnoxious ransom notes are all the same. At first, they appear to be explanations to what has happened. However, they all use psychological tricks to make you act impulsively. If you are given a time limit to complete the transaction, be sure, this is just a trick. The owners of the ransomware are blackmailing you. They will lie, they will offend you, they will do anything to get your money. Before you do anything, take a moment to consider the situation. This virus keeps your files as hostages. However, hackers are not the only ones who work on ransomware. Security researchers are working on decryption tools. Have some faith. Try to restore your files without paying the ransom. This task will be quite easy if you have backups of your files. Be warned! Remove the ransomware before you attempt anything. Otherwise, the virus will encrypt your newly restored files, too. Follow our guide or use a trustworthy anti-virus program to remove this menace.

How did I get infected with?

The “We have encrypted all your personal files” virus did not appear as if by magic. It was cleverly designed to sneak into your machine unnoticed. It tricked you. That is all. The Internet is bursting with dangerous threats. This ransomware is just one of them. Crooks have found many ways to spread their malicious programs. Spam emails, torrents, bundling, corrupted links, those are just the most common ones. Your vigilance, however, can prevent infections. Before you open an email, check the sender’s contacts. Enter the suspicious email address into a search engine. If it was used for shady business, someone must have complained online. In case you have received a message from a company, visit their official website. There, you will be able to find their authorized email addresses. Compare them with the one you have received a letter from. If they don’t match, delete the spam email immediately. Your computer’s health is your responsibility and yours only. Walk an extra mile if it is necessary. When installing a program, opt for advanced installation wizard. And forget about the “next-next-finish” installation method. Read the terms and conditions/EULA. If you think that something looks suspicious, there probably is a good reason for that. Abort the installation and run a system scan with your anti-virus software.

Why is “We have encrypted all your personal files” dangerous?

“We have encrypted all your personal files,” says it all. Your documents, pictures, archives, etc. are locked. To get them back, you must pay. But who can guarantee you that the criminals will keep their promises? Those people did not hesitate to penetrate inside your system. They abducted your files. And now they want Bitcoins. This currency cannot be tracked down. Once you pay, there is no way to get your money back. Don’t fall for false promises. Those criminals may offer to decrypt a file for free, but only under certain conditions. Basically, they are telling you that they can restore small files. What about your other files. Don’t contact cyber criminals. Don’t negotiate with them! This is their game. You just can’t win. Say goodbye to your files. Clean your machine. And start backing-up your files systematically. This way you will be prepared if a ransomware strikes again.

“We have encrypted all your personal files” Removal Instructions

STEP 1: Kill the Malicious Process

STEP 2: Reveal Hidden Files

STEP 3: Locate Startup Location

STEP 4: Recover “We have encrypted all your personal files” Encrypted Files

STEP 1: Stop the malicious process using Windows Task Manager

• Open your task Manager by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC keys simultaneously
• Locate the process of the ransomware. Have in mind that this is usually a random generated file.
• Before you kill the process, type the name on a text document for later reference.

• Locate any suspicious processes associated with “We have encrypted all your personal files” encryption Virus.
• Right click on the process
• Open File Location
• End Process
• Delete the directories with the suspicious files.
• Have in mind that the process can be hiding and very difficult to detect

STEP 2: Reveal Hidden Files

• Open any folder
• Click on “Organize” button
  
• Choose “Folder and Search Options”
• Select the “View” tab
• Select “Show hidden files and folders” option
• Uncheck “Hide protected operating system files”
• Click “Apply” and “OK” button

STEP 3: Locate “We have encrypted all your personal files” encryption Virus startup location

• Once the operating system loads press simultaneously the Windows Logo Button and the R key.

• A dialog box should open. Type “Regedit”
• WARNING! be very careful when editing the Microsoft Windows Registry as this may render the system broken.

Depending on your OS (x86 or x64) navigate to:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] or
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] or
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]

• and delete the display Name: [RANDOM]

• Then open your explorer and navigate to:

Navigate to your %appdata% folder and delete the executable.

You can alternatively use your msconfig windows program to double check the execution point of the virus. Please, have in mind that the names in your machine might be different as they might be generated randomly, that’s why you should run any professional scanner to identify malicious files.

STEP 4: How to recover encrypted files?

• Method 1: The first and best method is to restore your data from a recent backup, in case that you have one.

• Method 2: File Recovery Software – Usually when the ransomware encrypts a file it first makes a copy of it, encrypts the copy, and then deletes the original. Due to this you may try to use file recovery software to recover some of your original files.
• Method 3: Shadow Volume Copies – As a last resort, you can try to restore your files via Shadow Volume Copies. Open the Shadow Explorer part of the package and choose the Drive you want to recover. Right click on any file you want to restore and click Export on it.