Windows 10 deleted my Fallout 4 200 hour game saves and deleted essential software files so that my program icons on my desktop turn into blank icons

[rootuser39301]

Hi everyone! 

 

I have a Windows 10 gaming laptop which I bought with money I received from my salary. I spent $2000 on it expecting to finally be able to play today's games as I stopped playing games 10 years ago. I have found that Windows deletes my program files for my programs. Especially games. I spent 12 hours yesterday reinstalling all of my games 5 times each. Finally I got everything the way I wanted and those games turned into blank icons on my desktop. Games such as Doom 2016 and Crysis 3 crashed to desktop after playing the first level. These games weren't bought through a store of some kind but rather through an online sale so Microsoft must have found out somehow and assumed that they were pirated and deleted my games. Is there any way to fix this issue as I just want to play games? Or should I save myself the further trouble and just buy a console and sell my laptop. Any advice greatly appreciated. 

 

Kindest regards,

rootuser39301

[Naijin]

3 minutes ago, rootuser39301 said:

Hi everyone! 

 

I have a Windows 10 gaming laptop which I bought with money I received from my salary. I spent $2000 on it expecting to finally be able to play today's games as I stopped playing games 10 years ago. I have found that Windows deletes my program files for my programs. Especially games. I spent 12 hours yesterday reinstalling all of my games 5 times each. Finally I got everything the way I wanted and those games turned into blank icons on my desktop. Games such as Doom 2016 and Crysis 3 crashed to desktop after playing the first level. These games weren't bought through a store of some kind but rather through an online sale so Microsoft must have found out somehow and assumed that they were pirated and deleted my games. Is there any way to fix this issue as I just want to play games? Or should I save myself the further trouble and just buy a console and sell my laptop. Any advice greatly appreciated. 

 

Kindest regards,

rootuser39301

Via what app did you activate your game keys? Saves should (generally) be in the documents folder (or AppData). Windows shouldn't delete a save file. Did Defender delete them? If so, check those logs.

[rootuser39301]

8 minutes ago, Grand Admiral Thrawn said:

Are only the files for games disappearing or are there also other software files? Like office, graphics or other software?

Only games. 

[rootuser39301]

16 minutes ago, Naijin said:

Via what app did you activate your game keys? Saves should (generally) be in the documents folder (or AppData). Windows shouldn't delete a save file. Did Defender delete them? If so, check those logs.

I have no antivirus installed just Windows Defender. And that is disabled. 

[v0id]

46 minutes ago, rootuser39301 said:

Hi everyone! 

 

I have a Windows 10 gaming laptop which I bought with money I received from my salary. I spent $2000 on it expecting to finally be able to play today's games as I stopped playing games 10 years ago. I have found that Windows deletes my program files for my programs. Especially games. I spent 12 hours yesterday reinstalling all of my games 5 times each. Finally I got everything the way I wanted and those games turned into blank icons on my desktop. Games such as Doom 2016 and Crysis 3 crashed to desktop after playing the first level. These games weren't bought through a store of some kind but rather through an online sale so Microsoft must have found out somehow and assumed that they were pirated and deleted my games. Is there any way to fix this issue as I just want to play games? Or should I save myself the further trouble and just buy a console and sell my laptop. Any advice greatly appreciated. 

 

Kindest regards,

rootuser39301

It sounds like virus/malware related honestly, OP. Like, Windows just doesn't get rid of core game files for no reason whatsoever, even if Windows Defender did something it would have at the very least alerted you. That'd be the first place I'd check: scan your system with Defender and something like Malwarebytes to at least rule that out.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

wasn't could saves turned on in Steam? 

[SansVarnic]

-= Topic Cleaned =-

Let's attempt a bit more civility, Ok?

 

OP it is possible that your icons lost connection to the .exe files they belong to. I have seen this happen.

Are the files and folders still there or is it just that the icons dont work?

1 hour ago, rootuser39301 said:

These games weren't bought through a store of some kind but rather through an online sale

Can you be a bit more forthcoming as to what you mean by this? Steam? GOG? or another game site? Did you purchase these legitimately? 

 

One thing I must tell you is, if the games were purchased non-legit [pirated] then unfortunately we cannot help with your issue as this topic then violates our Community Standards.

 

I will also add that as it was pointed out Win10 does not randomly delete files on its own. Windows simply doesn't work that way.

Is there anything you changed to the files or folders where the games are stored?

Can you also provide any additional information as to what was happening when these files/folders where lost? for instance, and OS or software update took place? a change in hardware? etcetera...

[rootuser39301]

22 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

-= Topic Cleaned =-

Let's attempt a bit more civility, Ok?

 

OP it is possible that your icons lost connection to the .exe files they belong to. I have seen this happen.

Are the files and folders still there or is it just that the icons dont work?

Can you be a bit more forthcoming as to what you mean by this? Steam? GOG? or another game site? Did you purchase these legitimately? 

 

One thing I must tell you is, if the games were purchased non-legit [pirated] then unfortunately we cannot help with your issue as this topic then violates our Community Standards.

 

I will also add that as it was pointed out Win10 does not randomly delete files on its own. Windows simply doesn't work that way.

Is there anything you changed to the files or folders where the games are stored?

Can you also provide any additional information as to what was happening when these files/folders where lost? for instance, and OS or software update took place? a change in hardware? etcetera...

The message box for one of my games with a white blank icon says Problem with shortcut. The item crysis3.exe that this shortcut refers to has been changed or moved, so this shortcut will no longer work properly. When I looked for the entire game folder for Crysis 3 it is gone. And I installed it this morning.

[Naijin]

1 minute ago, rootuser39301 said:

The message box for one of my games with a white blank icon says Problem with shortcut. The item crysis3.exe that this shortcut refers to has been changed or moved, so this shortcut will no longer work properly. When I looked for the entire game folder for Crysis 3 it is gone. And I installed it this morning.

Did you install via Steam? Epic? GOG? Which platform?

[rootuser39301]

2 minutes ago, Naijin said:

Did you install via Steam? Epic? GOG? Which platform?

I bought an activation code. This is completely legal. Platform? Web store.

[shaz2sxy]

From the sounds of it hes downloading them illegally and probably full of viruses,malware which is messing his system

[Naijin]

Just now, rootuser39301 said:

I bought an activation code. This is completely legal. Platform? Web store.

Where did you activate the code? EA Origin?

Origin has a way to verify files and is able to put a new icon on your desktop.

[rootuser39301]

2 minutes ago, shaz2sxy said:

From the sounds of it hes downloading them illegally and probably full of viruses,malware which is messing his system

That’s a very big accusation you are making. What evidence do you have to make this accusation on this public website?

[gloop]

8 minutes ago, rootuser39301 said:

I bought an activation code. This is completely legal. Platform? Web store.

What platform is the activation code for?

[rootuser39301]

3 minutes ago, gloop said:

What platform is the activation code for?

It isn’t a platform. A buddy of mine buys games and then sells them for a profit. I bought these games from him with unused product keys. Which is legal and legit. And for some reason Windows is deleting them. I am not downloading them illegally like I was accused of. 

[gloop]

2 minutes ago, rootuser39301 said:

It isn’t a platform. A buddy of mine buys games and then sells them for a profit. I bought these games from him with unused product keys. Which is legal and legit. And for some reason Windows is deleting them. I am not downloading them illegally like I was accused of. 

I don’t follow? I know that you can resell codes for a profit but I don’t get how you don’t need to activate them to play?

[lewdicrous]

5 hours ago, rootuser39301 said:

*snip*

jfc.. knowing the service you're using to activate the key could be helpful. Are you activating them on steam, origin, etc?

 

6 hours ago, shaz2sxy said:

From the sounds of it hes downloading them illegally and probably full of viruses,malware which is messing his system

Sure does.

Edited February 17, 2021 by wkdpaul
cleanup

[shaz2sxy]

59 minutes ago, rootuser39301 said:

That’s a very big accusation you are making. What evidence do you have to make this accusation on this public website?

It is and you not answering is telling me it probably is true lol

 

Is you buy a "key" then you would need to activate the "key" via a launcher e.i

 

Steam,

Uplay

Origin

GOG

Epic

battle.net

 

a lot of people have asked what you are using to activate and your not answering

[lewdicrous]

This sounds sketchy..

Download malwarebytes (the real one) and run a full scan. Also remove all the games that you installed.

[tatte]

3 hours ago, rootuser39301 said:

I have no antivirus installed just Windows Defender. And that is disabled. 

Well there's your problem. Legitimacy of the activation keys is completely irrelevant if you're downloading the actual game files from third party sources. Either there'll soon be a massive story about newest Windows update deleting user files (again), or you have fucked up your system yourself. There's no conspiracy, your Windows is not unique nor sentient, and you're not being targeted by Microsoft. If you're confident about your own actions, report the issue to Microsoft and wait.

 

We don't care about your pirated games, but no one has magical fingers they can just snap your problems away with. The less you tell, the less anyone is able to help. Albeit the obvious tip would be that anything that requires you to disable your antivirus is rather obviously malicious, so if I were you I'd start there.

 

And please wear a mask in public.

[rootuser39301]

1 hour ago, lewdicrous said:

This sounds sketchy..

Download malwarebytes (the real one) and run a full scan. Also remove all the games that you installed.

You might be on to something. 2 threats detected so far on my Malwarebytes full scan. Will update when it’s complete.

[shaz2sxy]

1 hour ago, DriftMan said:

Where did you download the games from? Gog? Steam? Origin? Battlenet? Epic Games Store?

He's not answering that.... i wonder why?

[Stahlmann]

6 hours ago, rootuser39301 said:

I have no antivirus installed just Windows Defender. And that is disabled. 

This is most likely the problem. I'd say there is malware at play here.

[Stahlmann]

6 minutes ago, DriftMan said:

Because he's talking about the Crysis 3 and, as far as I know, you can't download it without a client

Yeah, he could have bought the keys of the games but a pirate game is a pirate game, no matter if you have bought it or not

Plus most game launchers also store your savegames in the cloud. We're likely talking about pirated games that included malware when they were downloaded.

[lewdicrous]

6 hours ago, rootuser39301 said:

I have no antivirus installed just Windows Defender. And that is disabled. 

2 hours ago, rootuser39301 said:

You might be on to something. 2 threats detected so far on my Malwarebytes full scan. Will update when it’s complete.

Of course.. You need an antivirus, at least enable windows defender.

Don't buy/download games from shady websites, then act surprised that some viruses -dressed in a trench coat- decided to prance around your laptop.