Windows 10: Bunch of my programs and files suddenly hidden for no apparent reason

Windows 10 Professional

Home Desktop PC

I came home after a couple days out of town and many of my desktop icons gone and then going to open normal apps such as my browser and most of my documents not coming up in search or anywhere in finder. I don't turn my computer off usually incase I need to access it remotely, so it was just idle for 2 days.

At first I thought maybe it was something malicious, since I had given a stranger my wifi password recently. I planned on changing it afterward but did not before going on the trip. But then I suspected that I just wasn't logged into my main user login (although I only have one), or I had lost admin privileges or something. But checking 'computer management' it said I did have admin priv....

Finally I just went to my boot drive and turned on hidden files, and there was everything! But because there doesn't seem like anything I can change in terms of privileges to fix it, I just manually clicked on the folders in the main director and unchecked "hidden" on all of them.

So now currently my problem is that even though all my files appear to be back, some of my main programs just don't open even when I try to open the original (not a shortcut). Nothing happens.

Anybody know why this had happened in the first place? What can I do from here? I'm sure I'm making it much harder than it needs to be, but also don't want to mess anything up royally doing trial and error.

Thanks!

submitted by /u/comfortnuke
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:)

 

Program to Find all Hidden Files?

Is there a program out there to find all hidden files and folders? I have been searching for one for a bit now and cannot find a solution to my problem. I figure there is either a slight virus or something corrupted. I have an external harddrive hooked up and I am in its files.

In its base, there is a recycler and a $recycle.bin. In the Recycler alone there is 17 gigs of items including 1000+ files and 100+ folders. I then start digging into it. First thing is roughly 10 small recycle bins named with lots of numbers with varying sizes. I open one with 3 gigs, 3 files and 2 folders, and it opens to nothing. I start opening all of the different recycle bins and nothing is being displayed in any of them at all though they all have size to them.

Yes, I do have "show hidden hidden files" on. All of my displays are on, display file size, simple folder, contents, full path, and full path. Neither of the hides are marked and show encrypted or compressed ntfs and show popup description are both checked.

I ended up deleting my recycled on my flashdrive a little bit ago because that also was taking up a few gigs of memory. It warned me that deleting it could result in it not working properly but if that's the case I will reformat it. I did get a quick look at it deleting actual files after it said "deleting recycled" it quickly flashed a few files names then disappeared.

So my question is how do I find what is actually there? Is there a program that can find out what is there or is there another way to go about it without a program? Also, what would be the best antivirus? I have tried AVG before but it slowed my computer down so much so I removed it. I have microsoft security essentials as of now but it doesn't detect any threats.

Running windows xp sp3

 

Hidden folders

I installed `Kane and Lynch` on my PC twice in Program Files(x86) folder but I can`t find them (2 folders with game). But free space on my HDD is lower. So there`re those folders on my hdd. I use option `unhide` hidden folders but still can`t find them. Any suggestions? How can i delete those hidden folders?

When I run istallation for this game I can see those folders in Program Files(x86) folde.

I`m using Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

 

Program to Find all Hidden Files?

Also, I have tried checking into "super hidden" value in the registry and it is set at "1" so that means that they are visible I think? The files are still showing up as empty but taking up roughly 3-5 gigs a pieces for a few of them like there is still something running in the background or hiding them even further than hidden files.