Member Avatar for colliebob

My wife just booted up her Win8 computer with Start8 to find that the desktop looks completely different (personal photo gone, generic Windows photo now), files she was working on yesterday (TextEase) seemed to have disappeared but were in the Recycle bin, and the metro interface only has about 4 tiles on it now rather than a screenful. All her photos have gone from the MyPhotos folder, and her music has also disappeared. As she has to get her work done tonight, we have decided not to do a System Restore or Last Known Good Configuration and I will try that tomorrow morning. We are with Virgin Media and their virus protection software does not work with Windows 8, so she only has Windows Defender and AEG Free running. Chrome has asked her to reregister, and IE has reverted to msn home page. It's as if someone had completely reset her computer and moved files around, which cannot have happened, as we've been here since the machine was last switched off. Thank God we're paranoid backers up, but still it's a major hassle. Anyone have any idea what can have happened?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Ancient Dragon

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Quick practical checklist and what to do first — preserve the current state before changing anything. Symptoms (default desktop, personal files missing but found in Recycle Bin, pared-down Start tiles) most often point at a profile-loading problem, an automatic repair or a transient account change — not Start8 itself. Attach an external drive and copy the entire Users tree (or make a full image) so you can experiment safely:

robocopy C:\Users E:\UsersBackup /MIR /COPYALL /R:1 /W:1

Confirm which account actually loaded and look for extra profiles. In an elevated Command Prompt run:

whoami
net user

Then check C:\Users for multiple folders or names like username, username.000, username.bak and note their timestamps. Open PC Settings → Accounts (or the control panel User Accounts) to see whether a local account or Microsoft account is in use — this addresses the ideas from and .

If Windows created a temporary profile you’ll usually see User Profile Service errors in Event Viewer (Windows Logs → Application) at the incident time. If so, examine the registry key:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Back up the registry first. If you see duplicate SIDs and one with “.bak”, the usual fix (carefully, and only if you’re comfortable) is to repair which SID is the active profile and set RefCount/State to 0, then reboot. If you prefer not to edit the registry, keep the backup you made and try a System Restore after imaging.

After profile fixes, recover files by searching for known filenames, restoring Previous Versions/File History (right‑click folder → Properties → Previous Versions), and emptying the Recycle Bin only after confirming. Run maintenance checks:

sfc /scannow
chkdsk C: /f
(If available) DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

If malware is a concern, run an offline/rescue scan. Finally, set up File History or regular image backups so a single boot glitch can’t cause panic. If the machine returns to normal after one reboot (as reported), still keep the image and logs — the next recurrence will be easier to diagnose.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

almost sounds like it booted to a different user ,
dose start8 still function ,never used start8 myself ,but i do know that 3rd party programs can cause problems

Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

Windows 8.1 will be released in a couple weeks, it's supposed to contain the start button because everyone complaints. It will be a free upgrade for all current 8.0 owners.

Member Avatar for caperjack

it's supposed to contain the start button because everyone complaints. It will be a free upgrade for all current 8.0 owners

im using the full early realease [msdn],and to say it has the start button is missleading ,it has the option to set it to boot to the [default is still to the start screen ] desktop ,and yes there is a start button ,but it just takes you to the metro start screen ,where you have the option to have it show all apps or metro/store apps when you go to it

Edited by caperjack
Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

Well, that's just crappy! I was under the impression it would be more like the Windows 7 start button. Sounds useless to me.

Member Avatar for colliebob

Yes, I agree caperjack, that's what it sounds like to me too. She was totally spooked but had to get on with her work so I'll check it out tomorrow morning. Problem is, it still has her programs and files (even if in the recycling bin), so that doesn't make sense. Apparently, she now also has the choice of opening photos in Windows photo viewer and not only in the media player - something she feels is an improvement (even if she has still to find her old photos).

Member Avatar for Greg_z

Start8 would not have changed the behavior of windows. Sounds like something else has happened. Start8 is for booting into the desktop, not for changing the metro interface.

As for the Windows 8.1, played with the beta for a few days, and yes it is more hype then anything. All it is, is a Service Pack, that really does nothing to the current Windows 8 OS.

Microsoft would have been better to just do a Service Pack on Windows 7, then release the garbage OS, known as Windows 8. It gets even worse with Windows 9, unless with Blamer leaving, it hopefully will never see the day of light.

Member Avatar for colliebob

I understand what Start8 is for, the question was: what can have caused the entire profile to have changed, apparently spontaneously. I obviously have to consider all options, and Start8 has to be a candidate. All that is left is the possibility that Windows itself made the changes, or that malware of some kind has infiltrated Windows Defender. Windows 8.1 does not belong in this discussion as it has not yet been released and we do not have the beta version.

Member Avatar for Greg_z

If she is using the Windows Live login, most likely it could not connect, so it set up a standard Windows login. Or she changed from the standard Windows login and setup a Windows Live account, and logged in with that, which gave the new profile.

Only you and her know. Defender is not going to change the login profile, neither will malware or Start8.

Member Avatar for colliebob

a) She didn't change her login, b) she has never used Windows Live login, c) the changes did happen, d) I just booted it up and everything is back to the way it was before this happened. We don't know that the login profile was changed, but what we do know is that the configuration of the machine was fundamentally changed and is now back to the way it was. I don't think anyone can necessarily rule any one of the possible culprits in or out; it did happen and something must have caused it. Anyway, all's well that ends well. Matter closed and will remain a mystery.

Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

chalk it up to gremlins
65f91022ddc2dacdcf27de286c316186

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