Bowd Virus

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*Bowd is a variant of Stop/DJVU. Source of claim SH can remove

Bowd

Bowd is a type of virus known as Ransomware and it is used as a blackmailing tool by its creators. Bowd initiates an encryption process in the infected computer through which it locks most of the user data located in the machine.

This sort of malware threats are among the worst you can encounter and if one such virus like Bowd or .Bozq, has entered your computer, it is really important to keep your cool and consider your options instead of going straight for the ransom payment that the hackers want from you in order to free your files. In many cases, there may be other safer options to restore your data, or at least those of the locked files that are really important to you. Also, you should stop and think about if any data of high importance has actually gotten locked by the virus. If the malware hasn’t really managed to take hostage any valuable files that you can’t afford to lose, then your only concern should be removing the virus itself (which could be done and we will help you do it).

The Bowd virus

The Bowd virus is a highly-advanced computer infection that is categorized as a Ransomware file-encrypting virus. The Bowd virus will use its complex encryption to ensure that you can’t access any of your most important files.

If this infection has actually gotten hold of any important files, then you should carefully assess the situation and look for the most optimal solution that could minimize the consequences of this malware attack. As we said, paying the ransom amount required by the hackers for the liberation of your files is an inadvisable thing to do. The main reason for that is you cannot know if you will really get to access your data again even after you have followed each of the hackers’ instructions and send them the demanded sum of money. After all, this ransom payment is not some regular purchasing deal and you don’t have any guarantee that you’d actually get anything in return for your money. That is why the suggested course of action here is to try to remove the virus (save the details from it ransom note just in case you still decide to pay later on) and to opt for some of the possible alternatives that may be available.

The .Bowd file decryption

The .Bowd file decryption is what can make the encrypted files accessible again but it can only be achieved using a unique key. The .Bowd file decryption might not be the only way to recover encrypted files so you are advised to try some alternatives.

First, you will need to ensure that your computer is clean and that the Ransomware is no longer in it. After you do that, you will have the freedom to try the other options that may potentially get some of your files back. Both the removal instructions and some recovery suggestions can be found in our guide that you will see right below:

SUMMARY:

*Bowd is a variant of Stop/DJVU. Source of claim SH can remove

Remove Bowd Ransomware

Malicious files linked to Bowd ransomware may be concealed in many locations on your computer. Therefore, if you want to remove the infection manually, you will have to go through each location one by one to remove the harmful entries.

Before you start, it’s a good idea to save this page to your bookmarks or open the removal guide on another device, so you can have quick access to it until you complete all the steps.

Restarting the infected computer in Safe Mode is the next recommended action. If you need help with that, you can use the instructions from this link, follow them, and then get back to this guide when the system reboots.

WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!

*Bowd is a variant of Stop/DJVU. Source of claim SH can remove

The ransomware may be supported by one or more malicious processes that are running in the background on your computer. That’s why you need to start the Task Manager (type “task manager” into a Start menu search bar and press Enter from the keyboard) and click on the Processes tab to check what processes are running on your computer.

Keep in mind that Bowd it may use the name of a genuine process or a random name to deceive the users who are seeking to get rid of it. Therefore, it is necessary to look for other red flags such as high CPU and Memory consumption, as well as suspicious names or strange letters and symbols in the names of the processes.

If you isolate a process that looks suspicious, the next thing that you can do to check it is to right-click on it, choose Open File Location, and then run the files stored there through the powerful free virus scanner available here:

Each file will be scanned with up to 64 antivirus programs to ensure maximum accuracy

This scanner is free and will always remain free for our website's users.

This file is not matched with any known malware in the database. You can either do a full real-time scan of the file or skip it to upload a new file. Doing a full scan with 64 antivirus programs can take up to 3-4 minutes per file.

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If any malicious files are found during the scan, End the process immediately and delete the files from the File Location Folder.

The Hosts file is the next thing that should be checked in the event that the computer has been compromised with Bowd, since illegal modifications may have occurred under Localhost.

To access the file, first, select the Start menu button in the bottom left corner of the screen and enter the following line in the search field:

notepad %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/hosts

The Hosts file should open immediately after you press Enter on your keyboard. Find Localhost in the text by scrolling down and take a look at the IP addresses that are listed below:

We’d love to hear about any IPs that don’t seem right by posting a comment after this guide.  If no strange changes have been made, simply close the file.

Another very important place to look for Bowd-related entries is the System Configuration. 

To open it, go to the Start menu search bar, type msconfig and hit Enter. You will see five tabs at the top of the window. Select the Startup tab and take a look at the startup items listed there:

Startup items that clearly don’t belong to any of your typical apps that start with your computer, or items that have an “Unknown” Manufacturer, should be researched online, and their checkboxes should be unchecked if they’re hazardous.

*Bowd is a variant of Stop/DJVU. Source of claim SH can remove

Malware often injects dangerous files into the system registry to extend its time on the system. Thus, it is necessary to search the registry for ransomware-related entries and then delete them in order to completely remove Bowd from your computer.

Attention! Because of the significant danger of harming the system’s general stability and performance, inexperienced users should avoid changing or deleting registry entries. If you don’t want to risk damaging your computer’s operating system and installed software, we strongly recommend that you use the powerful removal tool linked on this page.

If you insist on dealing with Bowd manually, you may launch the Registry Editor from the Start menu by typing Regedit into the search field and opening the result.

Next, you can use the CTRL and F key shortcut, type the ransomware’s name in the Find box and start a search in the registry. Delete any results that you are absolutely certain belong to Bowd by right-clicking on them.

Remember to use caution while removing files and folders from the registry otherwise, your system may be damaged to the point where a new preinstallation is necessary to restore it.

Additionally, we suggest searching the following five locations for ransomware-related entries. In order to access them, you can just type each one in the Start menu search field and press Enter from the keyboard.

1. %AppData%
2. %LocalAppData%
3. %ProgramData%
4. %WinDir%
5. %Temp%

Clean your computer by removing any files or folders that you believe are linked to Bowd or were introduced at the time of the infection. Select all the files in Temp and delete them – these are all temporary files, some of which could be linked to the ransomware. If you run into any problems, please let us know in the comments below, and we’ll do our best to assist you.

How to Decrypt files encrypted by Bowd

Depending on the version of the infection, decrypting encrypted data requires a different set of steps. The ransomware’s version may be determined by looking at the encrypted files’ extensions.

In order to decrypt any data, however, you must first remove all ransomware-related files from the PC. Professional anti-virus tools, such as those linked on this page, are strongly recommended for eradicating Bowd and other malware from your computer.

New Djvu Ransomware

STOP Djvu ransomware encrypts files with the .Bowd suffix in the newest variant. Currently, only data encoded with an offline key may be decrypted. You may download and use this decryptor to check if it can help you restore your files:

https://www.emsisoft.com/ransomware-decryption-tools/stop-djvu

Open the link and download the STOPDjvu.exe file by clicking the Download button.

To start the decryptor, select “Run as Administrator“, then click the Yes button. Read the licensing agreement and the brief instructions to make your work with the decryption tool simpler, and then click the Decrypt button to begin the process of unlocking your data. Please keep in mind that the decryptor may not be able to decrypt data encrypted with unknown offline keys or online encryption.

If you have issues with this manual removal guide or suspect that Bowd is still lurking somewhere on your system, please do not hesitate to use the anti-virus software recommended on this page or scan any suspicious-looking files with the free online virus scanner.