Over the last few days I have experience several issues with 'Windows Explorer' telling me a particular folder is empty. I knew there were about 38,000 files in that folder - all .jpg files. I could see them if I used 'Open Folder Location' option and followed the path to the folder, but selecting the folder direct from the 'Libraries' option, which is what I normally do, just told me the folder was empty. I went on-line and found a number of 'fixes', none of which worked, until I used one which involved using the 'Command Box' to re-set attributes on the drive involved. This appears to have worked perfectly, and I can now see all my files. It took a while, but all seems fine.
However... now, when I click on the 'Windows Explorer' icon, which I have in my 'Taskbar', every time I get asked to confirm that I am happy for Windows Explorer to make changes to my PC. As I am already an Administrator I don't believe that should happen, and it certainly has never happened before in all the years I have been using this PC. It isn't exactly a problem, it only takes a second or two to do, but I don't understand why it is happening, and am worried that it indicates there is some problem that needs sorting.
There is also now an issue when I restart my PC, as I get a Notepad message which reads:
[.ShellClassInfo] LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21769
Could this be associated with the problem?

My PC is an Acer Aspire M3910, with 8 GB of memory, running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.