TimDeaton

It happened again today (Sunday 9/18) just like last Sunday (9/11). I had the computer on from 8:30-11:30 this morning, and the shortcuts were there. Turned it back on around 12:45pm, went to do other things while it came up, and when I got back a few minutes later those shortcuts were gone. Last time & this time I checked the Recycle Bin, but they were not there. As far as I can see, my Desktop contains 3 kinds of things: 1. links to programs - none of which are affected. 2. actual pdf files - none of which are affected 3. links to individual pdf & xls files - all of which disappear when this happens Further, it appears now that this is happening according to a schedule. Now that I'm writing about it I can see that the last 3 occurrences have been on the last 3 Sundays. As to mta's last comment, I'm using Avira Antivirus Pro. I've searched thru that as well as I know how, but don't SEE anything that looks like it might be the culprit. (That doesn't mean it's not, but if it is I haven't spotted it.) I also have McAfee's Security Scan Plus installed. As far as I can tell, the only thing it does is a 2-minute scan every Thursday evening. The closest thing I can think of to another suspect is GWX Control Panel, designed to keep Microsoft from turning my Win7 pc into a Win10 pc. But I can't see anything that would make it a likely suspect either. I guess one of the Win7 automatic updates could have done something to cause this (somewhat like the link that Andavari found talks about). I'll have to re-read that and do more research in that direction. Meanwhile, if anyone here comes up with any ideas, please let me know. Thanks, Tim

The 5 shortcuts were deleted again today. I know they were there last night, and I think they were there this morning (9:00-9:45am). But I booted up the computer this afternoon around 1pm, ate lunch, and came back to it about 2pm -- and the shortcuts were gone. I've spent the last 2 hours hunting thru log files in hopes of finding a clue, but without success. I DID discover that the checkbox at | Cleaner | Applications | Applications | Adobe Reader DC | (which I had previously UN-checked) had a checkmark in it again. I removed it, and also removed the checkmark for Office 2003. Any other ideas? -- Tim

All files are in folders within the Users\(me)\My Documents\ directory. All shortcuts are in the Users\(me)\Desktop\ directory. In ..\Users\(me)\Desktop\ the disappearing shortcuts are: GenLdgr 201607.lnk GenLdgr 201608.lnk LSM news 201606.lnk OHBC news 201609.lnk TimBkp financials.lnk The files they are shortcuts for are: ..\Clippings\AIPB Newsletters\GenLdgr 201607.pdf ..\Clippings\AIPB Newsletters\GenLdgr 201608.pdf ..\Churches and Ministries\LittleSamaritanMission\LSM news.201606.pdf ..\Churches and Ministries\OconeeHeightsBapt-Athens\Newsletters\OHBC news 201609ms.pdf ..\Job Info\TimBkp\TimBkp-financials.xls

As to the question "where were those shortcuts pointing to": "5 are shortcuts to pdf files (the current version of certain newsletters) and 1 is a shortcut to an Excel 2003 spreadsheet." They are links to actual files, not folders. For the spreadsheet, I've had that link on the desktop for years, and I've used the link to open it 2-3 times in the last month. For the pdf files: As I get newsletters, I store each pdf file in an appropriate folder, create a shortcut to that file, and then move that shortcut to the desktop. At the same time, I delete the shortcuts to older versions of that newsletter. As to the link that Andavari referred me to: (It's a discussion that occurred when Win7 was in its public beta.) Win7 has done multiple updates since I upgraded to Ccleaner Pro in July, so it's possible that one of them caused the problem. It's good info worth chasing down, but I can't do it this morning. I'll re-read and work thru it as soon as I can. Thank you all for the help so far. -- Tim

I'm running Ccleaner on a Win7-Pro-64bit pc. I've been using Ccleaner free for years, but in mid-July I upgraded to the paid version of Ccleaner 5.19 (64-bit). Ever since I upgraded, every couple of weeks 6 shortcuts disappear from my desktop. 5 are shortcuts to pdf files (the current version of certain newsletters) and 1 is a shortcut to an Excel 2003 spreadsheet. I noticed recently that DESKTOP SHORTCUTS was checked under the SYSTEM section of Ccleaner's WINDOWS tab. I un-checked that, and thought for awhile that the problem was fixed. But today those 6 shortcuts disappeared again. On opening Ccleaner this afternoon (after I saw the shortcuts were missing again) I was prompted to upgrade from v5.19 to v5.21 and did so. In checking the various settings, I verified that DESKTOP SHORTCUTS was still unchecked, and I also noticed that under OPTIONS | EXCLUDE both the Public and the Owner desktop directories are listed. Under CLEANER | APPLICATIONS | APPLICATIONS, both "Adobe Reader DC" and "Office 2003" are still checked, but I would not expect those options to remove shortcuts from the Desktop directories. Am I wrong about that assumption? Is there another setting I need to look at? Or any other ideas? Is there any likelihood that the upgrade from 5.19 to 5.21 might have fixed the problem? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Tim