Next, click on Virus and Threat Protection > Quick Scan. From there, click on the Open Windows Defender Security Center. To get started, open the Settings > Updates & Security > Windows Defender. The guide will lead you to some ransomware decryption tools that can unlock your files again.įor removing regular malware, you should scan your PC with Windows Defender.

If you can't log in and you suspect that you’re dealing with ransomware, take a look at our guide on what ransomware is, and how to remove it. In this article, we’ll focus on malware that still allows you to log into your PC. Ransomware is a specific type of malware that blocks your access to the device or some particular information and then demands a ransom to unlock it. In a worst-case scenario, you're dealing with a ransomware attack. The above steps are all well and good if you encrypted your files to begin with, what if you didn’t carry out the encryption? Sometimes, a malware attack will encrypt your files without your permission to lock you out of your own documents. To decrypt a folder along with all the subfolders and files, use the following command, replacing 'path' with the complete path of the folder you want to decrypt: To decrypt only the parent folder, type the following command: Now it's time to run some code and decrypt your files. If you don't see the search bar, start typing and it should appear. To do this, type command prompt in the Start menu search bar and open the Command Prompt as an administrator. To get started, open an elevated Command Prompt. Related: How to Use the Windows Command Prompt to Encrypt Files If you're on a different PC or you recently reinstalled Windows, you can't decrypt your files again.

This works if you previously encrypted the file using the Cipher command, and you're using the exact same PC and copy of Windows as you did when you encrypted it. You can decrypt your encrypted files and folders on Windows with the Command Prompt, a command-line interpreter referred to as cmd.exe or cmd. Luckily, there are ways to recover such encrypted files. In fact, sometimes your files will get encrypted without permission, such as during a malware attack. And this is where you'll need decryption. But there's a caveat: you too might want to access these files in the future. In today’s world of pervasive hacking and data theft, keeping your files encrypted is one of the few possible ways to protect them from being misused.

How to decrypt a file windows 10