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Help!

C

caligrown

n00b
Joined
Sep 17, 2011
Messages
57
I don't know what just happened!

Was browsing the Steam Sales, but there must've been too much traffic because it was taking forever. Shut down steam and shut down my computer.

When I turned my computer back on, my desktop background disappeared, none of my taskbar links work with an error message "Can't open this item: It might have moved, renamed or deleted." All my desktop gadgets are gone and seem to be deleted from my computer, all of the programs in the start menu programs folder are gone, and I can't find them in explorer.exe either!

I literally did nothing out of the ordinary!

Ahhh, what the heck just happened?! What should I do?!

I do not have any restore points setup either!
 
Yeah, it sounds like you got a virus that's likely unrelated to Steam.

Can you boot into safe mode to run some AV?
 
Thanks for the responses, will try booting in safe mode when get home when my cars done in the shop.

But what the hell, I literally update MSE and anti spy/malware software daily and scan, and don't visit any sketchy sites or do any torrenting on my desktop. Just Steam for gaming, Netflix, YouTube, "safe browsing". Couldn't be more safe. Wtf.

With that in mind, only thing on my pc with personal info is steam and my credit info. Think I should not keep that saved?
 
caligrown said:
But what the hell, I literally update MSE and anti spy/malware software daily and scan, and don't visit any sketchy sites or do any torrenting on my desktop. Just Steam for gaming, Netflix, YouTube, "safe browsing". Couldn't be more safe. Wtf.
Click to expand...
I read an article recently that you are more likely to be infected by visiting a site you consider to be safe that has been compromised than you are by visiting what you consider sketchy sites.
 
Booted in safe mode, ran MSE antivirus full scan, no threats detected.

c:\users shows: Default, (Me), Public, and "UpdatusUser" which I never created but it says it was created in May 2013 and after a quick search it seems it apparently is part of Nvidia's updater?

Taskbar links still broken and all my precious settings and programs still gone in safe mode.

What should I try now?? I'm seriously tempted to just wipe my SSD which only has my OS, antivirus and a few light apps and reinstall everything. :(
 
Also ran Malwarebytes, Superantispyware, and Spybot Search & Destroy full scans, nothing found.
 
Never mind on the Sys Restore. Reinstall? I'm going to guess you don't have any sys images taken after you install all your safe clean wares.

If you end up having to do a complete reinstall, do yourself the favor of making a backup system image after you've reinstalled your SAFE progs, updates, and settings. You just have to.
 
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doubtful, but maybe a corrupt user profile?
create a new user and log in to that account and see if all that's still broke.
 
Well, I think I'm just going to go ahead and wipe my SSD, start a fresh install. Thanks for the suggestions, nothing seems to be working.

Really is a pain, because of all the settings I tweaked to make Win7 run just how I like. No viruses or spy/malware found after running multiple scans, not finding any errors anywhere. Tried logging in with different user, same problems. Tried running unhide.exe in case this has something to do with FakeHDD, no luck. I have no clue why all my settings, links, start menu programs and folders have all disappeared/don't work. I don't know what else to do!

I will definitely make a system image this time when I get it all set up again.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I'll wait until tomorrow before I wipe the drive. Any suggestions please!
 
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