Screen Locker Removal Guide

There are tons of annoying computer infections that look more dangerous than they really are. Screen Locker must be one of them. This malicious Trojan enters your computer behind your back and then performs particular changes on the system in order to unleash its payload. Eventually, the people who have created this infection expect to make money out of it, but you should never let it go to that point. The sooner you remove Screen Locker from your computer, the better. Please check out the removal instructions we have prepared below this article. Should you have any further questions regarding your computer’s security, you can always contact us by leaving a comment below, or by reaching out to us via social media.

When you get infected with this Trojan, it locks your computer screen by launching the Internet Explorer web browser. The browser is launched full-screen, and, as a result, it hides your Start menu, the Taskbar, and the entire desktop, as one would imagine. If that were not enough, Screen Locker can also modify the Registry key that is responsible for administering your mouse keys, so you can no longer use the right mouse key. Everything is done in order to prevent you from removing Screen Locker, but there is always a way around the infection; as long as you are willing to fight it. The most important thing is not to succumb to the demands of the cyber criminals.

You probably know exactly what the people behind Screen Locker expect you to do because you can see the notification on your screen. In other words, when your desktop gets covered by a huge browser window, it redirects you to neterrors.info/security-breach.htm. Judging from the website address, the page should be somehow related to a body that checks for online errors and other problems. However, when you encounter this blue screen, you are expected to contact “certified technicians” to fix particular problems your computer is supposedly facing. Here is an extract from the message infected users see on their screens:

mse.exe has expired on your computer. Plugin missing!
<…>
PLEASE DO NOT SHUT DOWN YOUR COMPUTER
PLEASE CONTACT MICROSOFT CERTIFIED TECHNICIANS
<…>
Toll Free : 1-888-315-3446
To immediately rectify issue to prevent data loss
SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITIES DETECTED ON YOUR COMPUTER

Needless to say that if you were to call the given number, you would only fall into the trap prepared by the cyber criminals. It is also very likely that eventually you would have to pay in one way or the other. Therefore, you should not do anything Screen Locker expects you to.

The problem is that Screen Locker does quite a lot of annoying things to push the innocent users into making that call. For instance, it can disable the explore.exe and cmd.exe processes, thus preventing you from running system controls on command prompt or accessing any of the system folders via Windows Explorer.

We could say that this type of behavior is a way for Screen Locker to protect itself from potential removal. Nevertheless, you have to do everything in your power to get rid of this Trojan. Luckily, all you have to do to delete the infection is follow the instructions, and you should be just fine.

If you think that manual Trojan removal may be too much of a task for you, you should consider investing in a licensed antispyware tool that will help you protect your computer from similar intruders. Do not hesitate to do all you can to prevent similar intruders from entering your system.

How to Remove Screen Locker

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del together.
2. Click File on the menu bar.
3. Open New Rask (Run…).
4. Enter regedit.exe and press Enter.
5. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon.
6. Right-click the Shell value on the right side.
7. Select Modify and change the value data to explorer.exe.
8. Navigate to the following registry keys:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\SafeBoot
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\SafeBoot
9. In each, right-click the value named AlternateShell.
10. Modify the value data to cmd.exe.
11. Now go to the following keys:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
12. Delete the value named NoViewContextMenu.