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Docs changed into Shortcuts?

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by nmlhaus9

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Secretary reported that ALL of her doc files had been changed to shortcuts, the original files have vanished! Has anyone seen/heard of this? No VIRUS was detected, local support says "The files weren't deleted, they are JUST NOT THERE" I was thinking maybe some kind of attribute editing, sounds like malware but I've never heard of this before.

4 replies

by hal 9000

Yes I've seen this previously but it was a Long Time Ago just after XP hit the streets.

It was an End User Problem where the used had done something and deleted the entire contents of the Data Folder in My Documents. I can't exactly remember what it was that she did but it wasn't creating a new profile it was one of those strange options and we had to reinstall her data from a Backup. Luckily she did this just after a Routine Backup so there wasn't much work lost.

Sorry I can't tell you more but it was a long time ago and I haven't seen it since.

Col

by nmlhaus9

Thank you for the reply, I'm not sure if it helps her at all, cause she didn't do any backup (yeah...what can you say!), but she's one of the lifers at the same University my wife works at, and more of an end-user than savvy at all. Would have thought that it should have left some detectable trace that their Computer Support would have detected. Planning on looking at it when I return to Pittsburgh, (in Oklahoma for one more week), but unless someone else has any ideas, you at least responded, and I thank you now, and will thank you again within the next few days.

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