Hacking Problem?

Question

My documents and hard drive are locked in some way. Every time I try to check out my pictures or videos or any files WHATSOEVER it says, "This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator."

I am the administrator by the way, and I tried deleting programs and downloaded an Anti-Virus.

What can I do?

Answer 1

If you have an anti-virus, I suggest you make sure it has the latest virus definitions and run a scan with it in Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking.  Both often prevent malware from protecting itself.  If you don’t have one, many people here swear by AVG (it’s free).

I suggest you also download Ad-Aware 2008 and Spybot S&D (they’re free), install them, update them and run them. If any of the above (or any anti-malware, for that matter) doesn’t seem to be able to run properly or get rid of everything it reports finding, try running it again in Safe Mode.

Also, turn off System Restore to evict any copies of bad stuff that might be lurking there.  

To get into Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking:

1. Log out and reboot your machine.

2. When the machine starts the reboot sequence, press the F8 key repeatedly.

3. Select Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking from the resulting menu.

4. When the login screen comes up, log in as Administrator.  By default, Administrator has no password.

5. The machine will continue booting, but the Windows desktop will look different.  You won't be able to see the Internet, for instance.

6. When you're finished, log out and reboot back into normal mode.

Note that even if the anti-malware programs get rid of the malware, they may not be able to reverse the effects.  Search the Web for possible fixes.

Update and run everything regularly.

Good luck.