Windows 7: Devices and printer folder emtpy, no recent programs or document list

Devices and printer folder emtpy, no recent programs or document list and other problems

I am having a weird problem with my computer, I have Windows 7 which was the upgrade from vista. I was in google images and went to a few sites then all of a sudden my screen went blue like it was shutting down and I got paranoid like it was a virus so I pressed power off. When it came back on it the whole windows theme was changed to the standard Windows 7 (I usually change the desktop and menu etc to classic theme) and I tired to change it back and it did a little, the bottom task bar though is still double in height then usual. The folder icons were huge allover my desktop to I ad to shrink them. In the taskbar all similar programs (multiple IE windows etc) group together and I can't ungroup them. I cant add any shortcuts to the taskbar, can't pin anything, no recent programs show up in the start menu, no recent documents even when I try to fix that in the customization tools it doesn't accept any changes.Pretty much any changes I try to make it will not accept even with start meno privacy option to show recent files and programs, the changes do not actually take effect.


Also printers wont work, when I open my devices and printers folder it is empty. I searched for hours online help and I think I got my printers working again but the device and printer folder is still empty and though my printer works I can't set it to default.

Also after I had shut down because I that I had a virus it looks like when my computer turned back on that IE8 installed itself and I had the version before that because when IE opened all those annoying tool bars were on the top of my browser (ask.com, google, etc) so I had to delete them. All my bookmarks were reorganized in alphabetical order.

I just did a system restore to a restore point 36 hrs ago (Friday morning May 13) but it did not fix anything and even new files that I had saved on my desktop from Friday to today that would have been lost from doing a system restore were still there so it was as if the restore did not really work or went through though it said it did. The only thing the system restore did was to once again change the theme back to the standard Windows 7 which I had to try to change back to classic display.




I don't know what the heck happened to my pc but it is not working like it should any advice?

Have you created a system restore image before this happened?

No actually had just bought a large external HD as I wanted to started creating images of my computer for when issues like this arouse but this happened before I set it up, figures. Can't figure out why the system restore did not work but it is just so odd the problems I am having and how are they related ie, no recent docs, or program lists, cant change appearance, customize taskbar then of course printer and driver issues.

It may be by hitting the power off button and powering off, you corrupted the Windows install. May require a complete clean install.
Here are some thing to try first:
SFC /SCANNOW
Malwarebytes, Download, update and run a full scan.
If you have s system recovery disk or partition, try that as a last resort. If after trying the scannow and Malewarebyte you have no improvement, start a new thread in Crashes and Debugging.

Thanks I had done the SFC and maleware but will try one more time and see what happens. Still can't figure out how IE8 got installed. I will try back when done thanks.

Ok thats odd I tried to do SFC and it said I must be an administrator running a console session in order to sfc utility. It did not say that when I did it yesterday

EDIT - figured out how to run it as admin.

Cool, yes right click the cmd.exe/Run as administrator.
IE8 comes installed in Windows 7, the google and ask.com toolbars do not.

Hmm ok well it reinstalled IE8 then from whatever photos web site I went too because it said welcome to IE allover again and like I said I had to delete all the unwanted toolbars....will report back when SFC and maleware done.

Hi DieselNY. Sorry to hear that you are having problems. There are some very smart people here and I am sure that you will get it all straightened out. Just a comment about the System Restore you ran. The files you added resently are still there because System Restore only replaces System Files. Your data both new & old should be ok.
Regards
JohnnyA

Ok so I did SFC an no problems I ran maleware no problems even did it in safe mode with networking and still no problems so that did not do it, still can't figure it out. I will start a new thread in crashes and debugging?