Laptop virus

[Caver]

Last night I got a virus on my laptop saying "West Yorkshire police has locked your computer pay £100 to get it unlocked"
I removed the virus by starting it up on safe mode and doing a system restore.
Is there a chance this virus could come back? And what are the chances?

[Telkanis]

Install a good antivirus. I use avast. It's pretty good and it's free otherwise you are at risk for other infections. Good luck.

[Mirage]

You didn't really have to do a complete system restore, but it's good that you got rid of it! This particular kind of virus is called "Ransomware" which is malware that tries to scare you into paying to unlock your computer. Common payment methods include texting a premium phone number or sending a PayPal payment or straight up entering your credit card number right into the program! This malware is often the most effective type due to the fact that it uses scare tactics like "A warrant has been issued for your arrest" or "Illegal downloads detected"

For future reference, read my soon to be All in One virus guide.
(will be edited with link when new guide is published)

[HunterSteele]

You didn't really have to do a complete system restore, but it's good that you got rid of it!
You're confusing System Restore with a system recovery, which reformats your drive and resets it back to it's factory condition. System Restore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Restore) is a Windows feature which returns your computer to a previous state, not necessarily the one it was in when you brought it home from the store.

[Mirage]

You're confusing System Restore with system recovery, which reformats your drive and resets it back to it's factory condition. System Restore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Restore) is a Windows feature which returns your computer to a previous state, not necessarily the one it was in when you brought it home from the store.

Wrong sir. There is no such feature as system recovery. If you search recovery from your taskbar it brings you to a control panel section which tells you to run System Restore. Please do not post irrelevant and incorrect information next time.

[Rayquaza]

Wrong sir. There is no such feature as system recovery. If you search recovery from your taskbar it brings you to a control panel section which tells you to run System Restore. Please do not post irrelevant and incorrect information next time.

Actually, you are incorrect. System Recovery is pre-installed on many computers, made from a small bootable partition which restores the computer to factory state. It is installed by the manufacturer and if the partition is deleted, System Recovery will no longer exist. System Recovery re-formats the hard drive, whereas System Restore reverts to an old snapshot made (mainly before the installation of a program) by Windows. Henceforth, his information was correct and relevant. And to add on, what you said about searching 'recovery' does not lead to just System Restore, it is one of three main recovery options, the other two being a whole system backup restoration process (made earlier) and a full Windows reinstall.

"Complete system restore" implies that it is a system recovery, as system restore acts almost like Mac OS X's "Time machine" where Windows reverts to an older state, but not neccessarily the oldest.

[TheGangstaSheep]

Oh no that's the "Met Police" virus that's been going round recently. It's a horrible Malware that tricks a lot of people into paying and yet they get nothing repaired. I know this from my mum as she works on the phoneline at BT to help people with computer problems.

[Caver]

All the boys replied; computer geeks! :D thanks guys it's completely fine and working now and back to how it should. :]

[HunterSteele]

Wrong sir. There is no such feature as system recovery. If you search recovery from your taskbar it brings you to a control panel section which tells you to run System Restore. Please do not post irrelevant and incorrect information next time.
There is no Windows feature called System Recovery. That is why I did not capitalize it in my previous post as I did with System Restore. System Restore is a feature found in Windows, but a system recovery feature is added by the OEM and can be branded anything they want. It lets you restore your computer to its factory state through a restore partition or included restore disks. This is different from simply reinstalling Windows-- the recovery will include programs that came with your computer.

This is what Shadow said. Thanks Shadow.

So, as you said, please do not post irrelevant and incorrect information next time.