I have seen this virus infect 3 of the computers I support within the last couple days, so I wanted to make sure my readers could figure out how to get your computer back if it has infected your computer. This one is tricky, because it takes over your whole screen. When it’s covering your entire screen you may not know what to do. Whatever you do, do not click on anything on the screen!
First to remove the notice that has now taken over your entire screen press Ctrl-Alt-Del and select Task Manager.
Click on the “processes” tab and look for “hotfix.exe”. Click on hotfix.exe to highlight it and then click end task.
Now that you have removed the message that has taken over your entire screen, you need to get your desktop back. In the Task Manager select File then “New Task”. Type explorer.exe and your desktop should come back.
Once your desktop has been restored you can go to the internet and download Malwarebytes. Install the program and run a quick scan. It should find the rouge program and remove it. If it doesn’t, make sure you go into C:\Documents and Settings (if you are XP, Users if you are Vista or Win7)\Application Data and look for the file called hotfix.exe and just delete the file and then run Malwarebytes again.
If you need further help, don’t forget to check out my rates for virus removal on my business website http://www.technologyformoms.com Good Luck!
As a disclaimer… ANY pop up or program that tells you there is a virus is LYING (unless it is coming from your actual installed antivirus program like ESET, Symantec, McAfee, AVG, etc). If you are unfamilar with the program telling you you have a virus, IT is the virus, and you need to just shut down your computer and reboot to make sure you don’t accidentally click on something that will install the virus on your computer.
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THANK YOU so much for your information.. we always fight in our house about who has the best information regarding virus’s.. I have printed this out and I am now the winner
Thanks. I hope I never need this!
I had this happen to me the other day before I read your blog. I did a system restore. That worked. Do I still need to find this file and delete it?
I would check your hard drive, just to make sure the file is gone. If it’s not there, then I think you are good!
You are far better doing a system restore with this one kid’s. Seeing as how I’ve already repaired upwards of 15 infected comp’s with this bugger in em in the last 5 day’s. This one’s hitting hard and i’d love to know where it came from.