Folders/icons on desktop gone

satorii · 21 Sep 2019

I am on 1903

I will explain this as it played out

I had battlenet on my computer but it was a blank icon..tried uninstalling it but it wouldn't let me. I could not get it to uninstall. Not sure why it was blank..i never uninstalled it before.

I downloaded a fresh copy of the battlenet app from blizzards website

I proceed to install it and login

I notice there is a copy of heathstone installed and i didn't want it so i clicked the "setting" option above the game and clicked uninstall on hearthstone.

Right away after clicking uninstall, before any uninstall process could start pretty much all of my shortcuts(accept for a few random ones) and ALL of my folders and documents i had disappeared from my desktop.

i have run a health check and scannow and some restarts.

I have checked in my users folder in c\user\desktop

id imagine its some sort of registry error maybe? with battle net being a blank icon to it "hiding/removing" all my icons right after clicking uninstall it sounds like a reg error.

Also after restarting ..I go to click on "uninstall or change a program" just out of random and all it would do was close before even opening it. here is an screencap: Screen capture - a99ae684420698462012fc21eed0ada3 - Gyazo

thats also telling me there is something up with explorer too.

I'm not sure but i need some of those files back and i cant get my original desktop to show.

Ztruker · 21 Sep 2019

Have you tried restarting the computer?

dalchina · 22 Sep 2019

Welcome to tenforums.

Under C:\Users you should see some account names.

E.g. your desktop folder wold normally be (say)
C:\Users\<your user profile name>\Desktop
- whereas you mention

c\user\desktop

It's impossible to say what's happened as a result of the strange uninstalls- potentially almost anything.

If Onedrive was active, you might find a copy of your desktop by logging in to Onedrive using an internet browser.

- or from your PC
C:\Users\<your user profile name>\OneDrive\Desktop

Have you tried searching for your desktop folder or any specific item in it?

If you want to try to find files and folders on your PC and you can't use file explorer, you could boot your PC from a live boot disk.

Do you have backups?

How do you protect yourself from such things?
tenforums repeatedly recommends the routine use of disk imaging. E.g. Macrium reflect (free/paid) + large enough external storage for image files.

By routinely creating image files of Windows and any other data partitions you have created, you have afull backup and a means of restoring your OS to a previous good state, hopefully without help. Even if you have to replace your system disk.

And you may want to have a backup routine as well for fast changing or critical files.

Some consider it good practice to keep user data off C: as far as possible. I do.