6 months back all my files from desktop, folders and files in it were deleted automatically (permanently). I used a browser after reading an article from PC World "The browsers with extra security than chrome and firefox". So out of those specified 25 browsers I used one (I don't exactly remember the name).
But while I closed that browser after use all my files were deleted from he desktop (like around 150 GB). I know it is not so good to store the data's in desktop but I did that stupid thing.
I contacted PCWorld regarding it, they told me they are 100% sure about it, that it was not caused because of that browser.
And the most interesting thing about that browser was that it was a standalone program (like tor) , doesn't need to be installed .So I used some recovery tools and recovered most of the files. Then I installed Malware bytes and Spy-Scanner and scanned my whole system and nothing suspicious was found. I use Avast Antivirus which I update daily(Free Home version). But my link to the desktop from favorite's was gone.
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Then I couldn't find my desktop items from under "C:\Users" folder. I thoroughly checked by couldn't find my items. I tried coping news files to desktop and tried to find it in under the user folder but couldn't. So the only place I could view the desktop files were under the save or upload options (like saving a web page, or saving a new .docx file etc) then I dragged the desktop link from there to the favorites list.
But yesterday the same thing happened, I was playing an online game and when I closed the game nothing was there in the desktop(Some links were there : Recylce Bin, Empty folders, Net beans.ink etc). I lost nearly like 10GB of data. The main thing was I had my work folder in desktop. So I thought of checking the system in detail. I couldn't find any suspicious process or services running.
The only thing I found a bit suspicious was my desktop address. Usually the desktop files are stored under C:\Users\User-Name\Desktop
but the files in that location are not being displayed in my case. I checked the address of the Desktop shortcut in favorites and found that the link used there was different. The current link were for the desktop shortcut is : C:\Users\My-Username\Cookies\Desktop
But the most fascinating thing is that there is no folder named cookies under the user folder.
Now if I click on the "Open file location" it shows me my desktop.
I would really like to know how the files are being automatically deleted. I searched it on the internet a lot but couldn't find the exact reason.I don't have any unwanted programs on my system. Also I would like to know how to change the desktop address/location to default as in other systems.
Another thing I would like to add to this is that I recovered most of the files which were deleted last time from the desktop and the folder location was : "C:\Users\My_Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\Desktop\". And I tried finding this folder in my C drive but as mentioned earlier there is not folder called cookies in there.
I have scanned the system with RougeKiller and found some threats in Registry.But as I am not sure of what those PUP registry entries were I didn't delete them.But I removed some programs and addons which were shown as malicious software. The scan report is as follows : Rouge Killer Scan report
Hoping for a solution from someone.