Antiviruses are different - weaker, stronger, more heuristic (read more cunning), more logical and not too much. And yet, despite all the sophistication of the developers, the laptop can lock up at any time. A beautiful tablet with a promise of unlocking for a symbolic reward is shown on the screen, which is sometimes even paid. Is it necessary?
One site, another, third … and now you don't remember how many pages you looked at, which overseas sites you visited, what you did and why. With peace of mind, you close the operating system and go to bed. And in the morning … oil painting. None of the functions work, the mouse shows no signs of life, the keyboard refuses to accept commands and send them to their destination. And only a beautiful sign "Send SMS to such and such a number" promises to return the OS to its original working state.
To pay or not to pay?
It is always a matter of money, which will be withdrawn from the phone's balance, but you will not get the result.
If this is your first time dealing with such extortion, it shouldn't be surprising if your first thought is to pay. Do not hurry. As the experience of many who decided to take such a financial step shows, you will not see anything good, except for the rapidly decreasing balance on the phone. Therefore, there is only one correct answer - do not pay!
Good. Not to pay and sit at a broken trough, through which you can no longer enter the world wide web? The antivirus winks plaintively from the tray, not a single key wants to work, the cursor is either frozen in place, or rotates only in the limited space of the message window. The laptop is locked.
There is an exit
The first rule of a laptop unlocker is to stay up-to-date!
Take it easy. There are still ways to bring your "iron friend" back to life.
Method 1. Kaspersky Lab and other equally reputable companies have developed online services for unlocking dead PCs. In this case, you will have to (on another known working laptop) go to the desired address (all links are indicated at the bottom of the article), enter the extortionist's phone number and the text of the message. The system will think a little and give you the required unlock code. If everything worked out, you have become a victim of the most common case of infection. Ideally, after this, you need to properly clean the system, and you can move on.
Method 2. It also happens that the code does not fit. Then there is another option. Restart laptop and press F8 after BIOS test. In the menu that appears, select "Safe Mode with Command Line Support". Then enter the command - msconfig. As soon as the menu appears, it has a "Tools" tab, and in it "System Restore". This helps to roll the system back a day or more.
Method 3. Some malicious programs are removed on their own after a while. This can be done artificially by tricking the system by date. Going into the BIOS when booting a PC and setting the desired date 5 to 10 days in advance is as easy as shelling pears. And if everything went well, do a virus scan.
Method 4. You will need a screwdriver and some skills in using it. It is required to remove the hard drive from the laptop and connect it to another PC. It's good if you have a box for an external connection. Then you can do it using USB. And then the hard drive is checked for viruses. Everything.
Parting words to users
The author of these lines himself has found himself in such an unpleasant situation more than once and has never paid scammers. Do not lose your presence of mind if this happens to you, but use the information from experienced users.
