Files turned into shortcuts

Question

Hello,

I had about ~10 files on my Desktop...

I was working on stuff, when the next day... uhhh... everything went into shortcuts...

When I try to open it, it tells me that the file was moved or changed,

And the file does not display anything inside. Too much work to be lost.

Oh, and, there's half of my family's files. I'm screwed.

HELP.

Things to understand:

NOT on USB, on Desktop.

No folders show up when I check the show thing

Answer 1

Hello Giorgi,

Thank you for visiting Microsoft Community.

As I have understood, you are experiencing issue with files turned into shortcuts. When you try to open, it tells that the files were moved or changed on the system.

I certainly understand your concern.

In order to understand the issue more clearly, I would request you to kindly provide me with the following information.

1. Did you make any specific changes on the system?
2. Since how long are you experiencing this issue?

I would suggest you to try the following methods and check if that helps.

Method 1:

How to use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files, please follow the steps in the link provided below.

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833?wa=wsignin1.0

Note: System File Checker is a utility in Windows that allows users to scan for corruptions in Windows system files and restore corrupted files. This article describes how to run the System File Checker tool (SFC.exe)to scan your system files and to repair missing or corrupted system files in Windows 8.1 or Windows 8. If a Windows Resource Protection (WRP) file is missing or is corrupted, Windows may not behave as expected.

If the issue persists, follow method 2

Method 2:

I would suggest you to try the following steps and check if that helps.

1. Press and hold keyboard key "Win" and the R, you will see run dialog pops up, then type "cmd" and click OK button.
2. In command window, enter attrib -h -r -s /s /d H:\*.* Take note that we assume the removable drive is H:, if it's other drive letter, please change accordingly. e.g. if it's G:, then the command will be attrib -h -r -s /s /d G:\*.* Press "Return" keyboard key to run the command.
3. If virus hides the files and folder, now you should be able to see them.

If the issue persists, follow method 3

Method 3:

Run a full computer scan with the Microsoft Safety Scanner to make sure that the computer is virus free.

Microsoft Safety Scanner, please follow the steps in the link provided below.

http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx 

Note: Any data files that are infected may only be cleaned by deleting the file entirely, which means there is a potential for data loss. 

I hope this information is helpful.           

Please do let us know if you need any further assistance, we will be glad to assist you.

Thank you.

Answer 2

Nope. did not work.

METHOD 2- it says ACCESS DENIED.

Method 1 - Link removed

Method 3 - did not work

Answer 3

My colleague Jayant, inadvertently omitted a step in Method 2 I noticed which is why you got the "Access Denied" error.

What you need to do here is to right click the Start button and click Command Prompt (Admin). This is a so called elevated command prompt which is necessary to run the Attrib commands he gave you.

Answer 4

The fact that I had it on desktop and not on removable drive is making me sad, making method 2 useless

Answer 5

The fact that I had it on desktop and not on removable drive is making me sad, making method 2 useless

That's not a problem. Simply change the drive letter to C as follows:

attrib -h -r -s /s /d C:\*.*