How to Remove Shortcut Virus from Pendrive or PC

Almost everyone here is using USB devices like Pendrives, Memory cards, MP3 players, etc. You might have heard about the virus called shortcut virus this why you are here. So in this article we are going to discuss about this virus and then later we will see how to deal with it. So, let's start by defining what exactly shortcut virus is-

How to Remove Shortcut Virus from Pendrive

What is shortcut Virus?

Shortcut virus is a virus which infects your USB flash drive (Pendrive), hard disk or memory memory card and then converts all your files and folders into shortcuts of those files and folder. Basically this nasty virus hides your original files and folders stored inside your removable media. So, one cannot access the data from that particular drive.

How does it spreads?

Like typical virus behavior this shortcut virus replicate itself whenever someone run that infected file or try to open that infected folder. It then infect other files that are stored on your hard disk or it might make its entry inside your windows registry. So, whenever you insert another USB drive which is not already infected by this virus will get infected by means of creating shortcuts of files/folders inside that USB flash drive.

How it looks?

As soon as you insert shortcut virus infected pendrive into your PC you will see scenario like this-

In certain cases (if you have enabled show hidden files and folder or file extensions) you might see the files and folders name ends with .exe, .lnk, .ini, .vbs, etc extensions.

What it can do?

As other malicious programs do, it can open backdoor for an attacker so that he can steal your vulnerable information such as your credit/debit card information, important passwords, and other vulnerable transaction details. It can also install other malware programs on your computer.

How to fix shortcut virus?

This what we are going to see in this article. Sometime it become frustrating and annoying while dealing with this nasty virus as most of the cases antivirus not able to remove this virus completely from your PC. So, we are going to see some techniques to remove shortcut virus from pendrive and we will discuss about shortcut virus remover tool. So let's remove shortcut virus from pendrive.

Method 1 - Make your own shortcut virus remover for PC.

Open your notepad and copy paste the code given below. Change I:\ to the drive letter where you want to perform scan and then save it as "shortcutvirus remover.vbs". Now double click on this vbs file to execute.

' Reset the file attributes of All the Folder in a specific Drive
' Change I:\ to the drive letter where you want the change will happen.

cDrive = "I:\"

Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
ShowSubfolders FSO.GetFolder(cDrive)
WScript.Echo "Done with fix."

Sub ShowSubFolders(Folder)
    str = ""
    For Each Subfolder in Folder.SubFolders
        str = str & " " & Subfolder.Path
        subFolder.Attributes = 0
        ShowSubFolders Subfolder
    Next
End Sub

Method 2 - Command to remove shortcut virus.

First method doesn't worked for you? Never mind, we have another way to remove this usb shortcut virus by using single line command prompt (CMD) command. This will definitely help you!

• To delete/fix shortcut virus, please connect your infected USB flash drive to your PC.
• Now click on "Start" → enter "cmd" → then right click and select "Run as administrator".

• Now enter this command → "attrib -h -r -s /s /d I:*.*" (Without double quotes) and press enter key.

(Note: I am assuming that your USB flash drive as "I" letter. If your drive is not "I" then replace it with that letter.)

Method 3 - Use USBFIX antivirus to remove shortcut virus.

Don't want to enter command every time you insert infected pendrive? Still never mind, you can use shortcut virus remover tool called USBFIX that can remove shortcut virus from pendrive. Its free version is available to download and use. Click on the link given below to download this shortcut virus remover for PC.

• Link to download USBFIX - https://goo.gl/AkGsJ7

Now install this shortcut virus remover tool and launch it. Now click on the clean option of USBFIX and wait for some time to complete its action completely.

How to remove shortcut virus from Windows registry?

(WARNING: FOR MODERATE USERS ONLY - IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT ARE YOU DOING THEN PLEASE SKIP THIS METHOD - WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE IF ANY DAMAGE CAUSED TO YOUR SYSTEM.)

After infecting your PC it might enter inside your Windows registry then can modify some registry entries. To fix this follow the steps given below.

• Click the "Start" button, then enter "Run".
• Now type "regedit" and click on OK.

• Now go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE → SOFTWARE → Microsoft → Windows → CurrentVersion → Run"

Now examine for suspicious program entry inside "Run" and "RunOnce". If you find something that you don't know, then google that program name. If it found as virus or spyware then right click on it and "delete" it

That's it guys! We this article surely help you to eliminate this virus completely from your PC. If you want to prevent this virus entering in your PC then make sure to update your antivirus software as well as your Windows OS.