Error Ransomware Removal Guide

Do you know what Error Ransomware is?

Error Ransomware is a new member of the CryptoMix family of ransomware infections. It was detected in August, 2017 for the first time, and it has not infiltrated many computers yet. Those users whose PCs get infected with this nasty infection find out about the successful entrance of this threat soon because they come across a bunch of encrypted files whose filenames are changes and they have a new extension appended to them. Yes, Error Ransomware also encrypts personal files it finds stored on victims’ computers, so it definitely does not differ much from other crypto-threats trying to extract money from users. It has only one feature that distinguishes it from older ransomware infections – it does not need the Internet connection to encrypt users’ files. As a consequence, you will not stop the encryption procedure by disabling the Internet access. If you could not prevent the ransomware infection from entering your PC and encrypting your personal files, there is not much you can do to fix this now. We certainly know that you cannot let this infection stay on your system. It creates a point of execution on compromised machines and, consequently, can start working together with the Windows OS. In other words, rebooting/turning your PC off will not disable it, so it might strike again at any time.

We are sure Error Ransomware will not leave your files intact if it ever enters your system. Following the successful infiltration, this infection quickly scans the system to locate pictures, documents, videos, and other important files. Then, it encrypts them all fearlessly. As has been mentioned in the first paragraph, all the names of those encrypted files are changed to a string of letters and numbers and, on top of that, all these encrypted files get the .ERROR extension. You cannot remove those extensions and unlock your files. Ransomware infections use strong encryption algorithms to lock users’ files, so you need to have a unique key or a special decryptor so that you could unlock the encrypted data. Although the file _HELP_INSTRUCTION.txt does not contain much information about the decryption of files, i.e. users are only told to send their unique IDs to one of three listed emails (error01@msgden.com, error02@webmeetme.com, or error03@protonmail.com), we are sure you will not get free help even if you do as instructed. It is more likely that you will be offered to purchase a special decryption tool or key. Most probably, it will not be cheap. We do not recommend paying money for the decryption of files no matter how much their decryption costs because it is very likely that you will get nothing from the ransomware creators after sending them your money. You will not get your money back in such a case either, so our specialists recommend trying to restore the encrypted data from a backup or using other alternative methods. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that you will manage to restore all your encrypted files.Error Ransomware Removal GuideError Ransomware screenshot
Scroll down for full removal instructions

Specialists say that Error Ransomware is quite a sophisticated ransomware infection because it drops a copy of itself to %ALLUSERPROFILE% so that it would not be that easy to get rid of it. Additionally, it creates an entry pointing to %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\[random].exe in the Run registry key so that it could continue working on a compromised machine even after it is restarted. This means that it will not stop working on your system unless you delete the ransomware infection fully. We recommend deleting it as soon as possible because it will surely not miss a chance to encrypt your new files.

Although Error Ransomware copies itself to one directory on the affected computer, we are sure you will delete this malicious application fully with our help. If you scroll down, you will see that you need to perform only 3 removal steps: 1) delete the random-named .exe file from %ALLUSERPROFILE%; 2) open the Run registry key and delete the entry of Error Ransomware; 3) remove recently downloaded suspicious files. If you do not find our manual removal guide very helpful, you should delete this ransomware infection automatically. Unfortunately, an automatic malware remover cannot unlock files after deleting ransomware either.

Delete Error Ransomware

  1. Launch Run (tap Win+R).
  2. Type regedit.exe and tap Enter.
  3. Move to HKCU/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Run and delete all Values (they have random names) belonging to the ransomware infection.
  4. Close Registry Editor.
  5. Open Windows Explorer (tap Win+E).
  6. Go to %ALLUSERPROFILE%.
  7. Delete {randomname}.exe from this directory.
  8. Close Explorer.
  9. Delete all suspicious recently downloaded files.
  10. Empty Recycle bin.

In non-techie terms:

Error Ransomware is very serious malware that will lock your files the second it is inside your system. Unlike the majority of ransomware infections previously analyzed by our malware researchers, it does not demand money. Instead, users are told to write an email to any of the provided email addresses. Most probably, they will receive an answer from cyber criminals demanding money. Do not transfer a cent to malicious software developers no matter how badly you need your files back!