Desktop - where has everything gone??

longwalks1

Ive had my HP desktop for about 4 years now, always logged on the same way (enter my usual password).  Tried it yesterday, it let me on but nothing was visable that was specific to me (wallpaper, shortcuts, cant even find any of my files saved, which is loads)

I'm sure its there still, somewhere as ive not deleted anytihng - Help please, I'm a technohpobe and panicking!

dan958

Try seeing if they are on another user profile. Go to Computer > Local Disk (C:) > Users - then check in these folders.

longwalks1

dan958 said:

Try seeing if they are on another user profile. Go to Computer > Local Disk (C:) > Users - then check in these folders.

Hi Dan958

Yes, found it all, many thanks!  but why does it not load up when i log on in the morning?  I selected my user profile (my name) and entered my usual password, its almost as if im logging on as a 'guest', therefore hiding all my own settings?

AndyPix

It seems you have been logged on with a 'temporary profile' .. Did you not see a message telling you ?

If you go to c:/users do you have more than one folder in there with your username ?

for example AndyPix and AndyPix.local or something similar ?

longwalks1

Hi AndyPix

Didnt see a message when i logged on, but cant be sure it wasnt there im afraid

In my Uers folder, there are 4 folders:

Britishboy (my name)    30/03/2020

Default.migrated  27/09/2017

Public    02/08/2019

TEMP  05/04/2020

AndyPix

yeah there is the temp profile at the bottom.

Its a bit of a pain to fix to be honest but I will find you a guide that is in as 'layman' terms as possible

Neil49

Step One - backup all your important files onto an external hard drive. 

Step Two - backup all your important files onto the cloud (eg Google drive) if possible. 

AndyPix

Go straight in for solution 4 in this guide here . Dont be daunted, just follow the steps exactly

https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/win-10-temporary-profile-008.html

Neil_Jones

Is this a local account or a Microsoft account?

(the presence of a folder in C:\Users doesn't prove anything either way)

These sort of issues are almost always caused by anti-virus software, sometimes if you restart the computer it suddenly decides it can see it again.