Winlocker

Winlocker is a family of Trojans that display fake warning messages, including alerts from the police and/or system security-related warnings, in an attempt to extort cash from their victims. To make its ransom attempt look legal, Winlocker may localize its alerts to specific countries, pretend to be a law enforcement tool, claim that your PC has been involved in illegal activities or warn you about malware attacks that are linked to your PC. Along with the ransom message, Winlocker also will block you from using other programs and should be considered a direct threat to your computer's well-being. SpywareRemove.com malware researchers always encourage you to disable and delete Windows-locking PC threats like Winlocker as soon as you can, and, ideally, with some assistance from a good brand of anti-malware software.

Winlocker: the Chain Around Windows that Hopes You'll Misunderstand Its Intentions

The Winlocker can encompass many variants of ransomware-based malware but, in all cases, is detected through its fake pop-up warning and the corresponding ransom exhortation. From past analyses, SpywareRemove.com malware experts have determined that attacks by Winlocker and other ransomware families have been known to be especially stringent about targeting most European countries. However, almost all first-world countries, from Australia to Argentina, have been under attack by Winlocker-style attacks that have been designed just for them.

Winlocker also is known by aliases that include PC Lock, Windows Lock or the Windows Locker Trojan, but you will not see these names in its pop-ups. Winlocker's pop-ups will pretend to be from your country's police force, Microsoft or another trustworthy entity, and will block you from using the rest of Windows. To sidestep this problem, SpywareRemove.com malware research team usually suggests that you disable Winlocker (either via Safe Mode or a system that's loaded from a removable hard drive).

Denying Winlocker the Cash that It Doesn't Deserve

While the justifications for Winlocker's attacks can vary with the different pop-ups that Winlocker uses, the final request always is the same: Winlocker demands that you transfer money (usually through a voucher system like Ukash or, in some cases, a premium phone message) before you can get your PC unlocked. This also prevents you from using any other programs – not-so-coincidentally including anti-malware scanners that could delete Winlocker.

Paying Winlocker or any similar PC threat, such as a Ransomlock Trojan, Police Trojan or other type of extortionist PC threat, always is discouraged by SpywareRemove.com malware researchers, who have found that most such Trojans, including Winlocker, usually don't bother to include unlocking functions that would respond to a successful payment. As a more surefire (and less expensive) way of freeing your computer from Winlocker's attacks, you should disable Winlocker and then delete Winlocker with any anti-malware application that you prefer to use.