Windows Defender quickly scans your PC for problems. Then click Virus and Threat Protection> Quick Scan. From there, click Open the Windows Defender Security Center. To get started, open Settings> Updates & Security> Windows Defender. To remove common malware, you should scan your PC with Windows Defender. The wizard will guide you to some ransomware decryption tools that can unlock your files again. If you can not log in and you suspect that you are dealing with ransomware, take a look at our guide on what ransomware is and how to remove it. In this article, we will focus on malicious software that still allows you to log on to your PC. Ransomware is a specific type of malware that blocks your access to your device or special information and then requires a ransom to unlock it.

In the worst case, you are dealing with a ransomware attack.

The above steps are fine if you encrypted your files to begin with, what if you did not perform the encryption? Sometimes a malware attack will encrypt your files without your permission to lock you out of your own documents. Your files will be decrypted in a few seconds.

You will see another dialog box asking if you want Apply changes to this folder or Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files. Uncheck Encrypt the content to secure data radio box and click OK. Right click on the encrypted file and select Properties. If you have encrypted your files with EFS, you can easily decrypt them from Properties section. To decrypt a folder along with all subfolders and files, use the following command and replace the “path” with the entire path of the folder you want to decrypt: To decrypt only the main folder, enter the following command: Now it’s time to run some code and decrypt your files. If you do not see the search box, start typing and it will appear. Both 32-bit and 64-bit systems are supported.

To do this, type the command prompt in Start menu search field and open command prompt as administrator. This utility works on any version of Windows, starting from Windows XP and up to Windows 10. To get started, open an elevated command prompt. Related: How to use Windows command prompt to encrypt files If you are using another PC or newly installed Windows, you will not be able to decrypt your files again. This works if you have previously encrypted the file with the Cipher command, and you are using the exact same PC and copy of Windows that you did when you encrypted it. You can decrypt your encrypted files and folders on Windows with a command prompt, a command line interpreter referred to as cmd.exe or cmd.

How to decrypt a file windows 10