This looks like more of an effect of a malware infestation. I'd be tempted to wipe and reinstall to avoid all the aggro, however there are steps you could take if you'd like to attempt to recover the system.
Things to try
- Try to restore to a different restore point.
- Create a brand new user account, login with that and see if the problem persists
- Open an elevated command prompt and typing
chkdsk c: /f
and reboot to check the disk for errors (do this before any further steps). - Open an elevated command prompt and typing
sfc /scannow
Good luck, I'll post some more suggestions if these don't work for you.
Desktop & Documents
Check for the existence to the path to your desktop. The Desktop and Documents path defaults to C:\Users\%USERNAME%\
. If your desktop files are there then you need to change your desktop path.
Changing your Desktop/Documents Path
- Click on "Start" and type
regedit
. - Right click on
regedit
in the start menu and click onRun as Administrator
. - Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
and update your path for Desktop/Documents value there. - Repeat step 3 but for
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
. - Logout and back in.
Folder Options
Just found a blog entry that describes the problem you were having with the folder options window. I checked the file and it looks clean, look for the "7" download like on this page or you could download the .reg file directly.