Windows 10: No icons, files, or programs on my Windows 10 laptop?

I have an HP laptop with Windows 10. The fan started making a grinding noise one day and two days after that, it stopped and my computer restarted. When it booted back up, my windows was empty. No icons, files, or programs. Just a bare screen with my wallpaper pic and the cursor. What happened and how do I fix this? I had very important files on this computer.

:)

 

GPU-Z Program Icon Submission

Suggestion to have an option to change Notification Area icon this way too.
Suggestion to finally have proper separate Options window like most (all?) Windows programs do.

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

Change Folder Icon in Windows 10


I just acquired a new laptop running Windows 10 and am trying to change the icons of the folders in the StartUp "Program" folder so that they would stand out a little better. I used my admin account and followed all the steps listed above, but when I clicked on "Apply", nothing happened. The same basic windows folder icon remained attached to the folder. I also tried to go into Properties and capitalize some of the folder names, but that didn't work either. Looks like something is protecting them, but I cannot figure out what it is much less how to get around this blockage, Any suggestions?