The desktop folders disappeared. How do I recover them?

[Sary Al-Assad]

A problem happened in a family member's laptop. I don't know what he did exactly but he says he saw a message and clicked it and the mouse also stopped working so he forced shut the laptop. When he started it again he found that all folders that he previously created on the desktop disappeared. Original folders did not. Chrome and Firefox no longer existed on the computer. Just the default browser, IE. Folders on the D: drive are still available. Only the ones on the desktop disappeared.

He is using Windows 7.

Here are the steps I tried to do to fix/detect the problem:

1. I tried looking at the computer's event viewer. However, I found that no events were logged prior to the time the problem occurred.


2. Tried reverting to a restore point. Found that no restore points existed prior to the problem's date except for a very old point that dates back to 2011.


3. Tried showing "hidden" files and folders. Nothing happened.


4. Downloaded and ran unhide.exe. Nothing happened.


5. Tried a full scan with MalwareBytes. Nothing was detected.

I have no idea what happened. The folders on the desktop were full of personal pictures which makes them valuable. Now I know why they say don't store anything on the desktop.

How can I resolve this?