L
Lanceswish24
Guest
Hey there Microsoft Community! I hope you are all doing well amidst this COVID pandemic.
I use an ASUS TP300L, Windows 8.1 Single Language, Intel Core i3. 64-bit if that may be a necessary piece of information.
Okay so this started 2 or 3 hours ago. I'm gonna describe what happened as detailed as possible because I am not the best when it comes to computers. I was playing NBA 2k then I got bored so I decided to switch to Hitman: Absolution. When I started Hitman, a notification popped up that the steam_api.dll file was missing, so I copied the same file from another game I had. I tried to run Hitman again, it said another steam file was missing so I did the same thing, copied that missing file to Hitman's folder.
My laptop is pretty slow so whenever I want to play a game, I sometimes restart it because it runs faster that way. When I restarted, upon entering my password, the screen said that it was installing apps and that I could download more apps from the app store. I assumed it was an OS update but it's weird because I'm on Windows 8.1, when there's already Windows 10. Unless that's normal. Anyway, when my desktop finally showed, a status bar appeared saying "C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\Desktop is unavailable. If location is on this PC......".
So I looked at my files in Drive C and D, they were all still there, but the links to Desktop, Downloads, Pictures, Music, and Videos were all dead. When opened through the Users>USER path, everything was still there. I applied a fix wherein you manually set the path to the Desktop, and it worked my Desktop was back to normal. But the taskbar lost all of its quick launch icons I set, Google Chrome appeared as if it had just been newly installed: when I go to Facebook, my account isn't there anymore, bookmarks are gone, history is gone, typing usual sites in the address bar doesn't autofill anymore, etc. Opened up Windows Defender as well and removed all viruses detected. Am currently running a full scan as we speak.
I restarted my laptop again. Upon logging on, my desktop was again empty, but the error did not appear anymore. The quick links at the left side of explorer were fine but my desktop was empty already. I tried searching for one of the folders I remember having on the desktop, search turned zero results. So basically, after just fixing the path to the desktop, now my desktop files were deleted. And weirdly, my taskbar quick launch icons are back, Google Chrome is also back to normal function as if nothing happened.
And that leads to this moment now that I am typing this.
> Has anybody else experienced this?
> Is this a virus?
> Is there any way I can recover the files that were on the desktop before? Two of the folders I lost were school files
(( (I've already checked the recycle bin they are not there.)
> Do I have to reformat my laptop?
I'd appreciate any and all help right now. I'm not the best when it comes to computers I only know how to use them.
Continue reading...
I use an ASUS TP300L, Windows 8.1 Single Language, Intel Core i3. 64-bit if that may be a necessary piece of information.
Okay so this started 2 or 3 hours ago. I'm gonna describe what happened as detailed as possible because I am not the best when it comes to computers. I was playing NBA 2k then I got bored so I decided to switch to Hitman: Absolution. When I started Hitman, a notification popped up that the steam_api.dll file was missing, so I copied the same file from another game I had. I tried to run Hitman again, it said another steam file was missing so I did the same thing, copied that missing file to Hitman's folder.
My laptop is pretty slow so whenever I want to play a game, I sometimes restart it because it runs faster that way. When I restarted, upon entering my password, the screen said that it was installing apps and that I could download more apps from the app store. I assumed it was an OS update but it's weird because I'm on Windows 8.1, when there's already Windows 10. Unless that's normal. Anyway, when my desktop finally showed, a status bar appeared saying "C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\Desktop is unavailable. If location is on this PC......".
So I looked at my files in Drive C and D, they were all still there, but the links to Desktop, Downloads, Pictures, Music, and Videos were all dead. When opened through the Users>USER path, everything was still there. I applied a fix wherein you manually set the path to the Desktop, and it worked my Desktop was back to normal. But the taskbar lost all of its quick launch icons I set, Google Chrome appeared as if it had just been newly installed: when I go to Facebook, my account isn't there anymore, bookmarks are gone, history is gone, typing usual sites in the address bar doesn't autofill anymore, etc. Opened up Windows Defender as well and removed all viruses detected. Am currently running a full scan as we speak.
I restarted my laptop again. Upon logging on, my desktop was again empty, but the error did not appear anymore. The quick links at the left side of explorer were fine but my desktop was empty already. I tried searching for one of the folders I remember having on the desktop, search turned zero results. So basically, after just fixing the path to the desktop, now my desktop files were deleted. And weirdly, my taskbar quick launch icons are back, Google Chrome is also back to normal function as if nothing happened.
And that leads to this moment now that I am typing this.
> Has anybody else experienced this?
> Is this a virus?
> Is there any way I can recover the files that were on the desktop before? Two of the folders I lost were school files
(( (I've already checked the recycle bin they are not there.)> Do I have to reformat my laptop?
I'd appreciate any and all help right now. I'm not the best when it comes to computers I only know how to use them.
Continue reading...