What happened to my desktop?

I turned on the computer when i got back from work this morning and while it was loading i noticed it said "setting up desktop".I didn't think anything of it until the desktop popped up.

First thing i noticed was that the Windows sidebar was back,and that Impulse and HP advisor did not load up on the task bar.Several of my shortcuts are missing including the shortcut to my homepage but it seems almost arbirtrary which shortcuts are gone as several newer ones are still there.

I haven't checked everything yet but my downloads folder is completely empty,i keep downloaded zips as backups so i don't have to reload if there is a problem,and my favorites links was completely wiped clean.

Now normally if there has been a problem the computer alerts me when it boots up but not this time and everything was fine when i turned it off before going to work last night.

Any ideas?

know it didn't roll back to a restore point because newer things are still on my desktop,and from what i have checked everything is still in the program files,but some of the older documents and shortcuts are gone.

*edit I just checked out EB mod and GalCiv2 to see if their working fine since their the 2 games i'm playing the most right now.

EB seems fine but all the saved games for GC are erased.

Bummer.I had a pretty sweet game going.

Ok this just gets stranger.

Everything that was missing is back when i turned it back on a little bit ago.

Yes, it is a error which loads up a temporary profile. I had it common in Windows Vista, though, I never got it with Win7.

Usually restarting computer or relogging back in fixes it. However, if it remains 'broken' then you pretty much have to create a new account and transfer all your files over (which you can access in C:/Users)

I never knew that.This is the first time i've had this happen.

Stupid Vista.

Well at least now i know it wasn't gremlins.Thanks.