Windows 7 upgrade (gee, thanks)

[QuikSand]

So, I have a fairly new laptop --bought it with W7 installed. Still haven't had the time to set up all the ridiculous steps to operate FOF correctly, but had basically gotten most everything working okay.

Last night, an automatic W7 upgrade triggered. In the process, my machine essentially forgot everything, it seemed. All my personal settings were gone -- from my wallpaper image to my taskbar items to my FireFox setup and bookmarks to every cookie and cache item for my browser. Pretty much a pain in the ass to reset everything.

My best guess is that there's some setting I should have selected to keep this from happening... and that I can use to keep it from happening next time there's an auto-upgrade. Quick web searching is sending me to lots of info on upgrading from earlier Windows versions to 7, rather than what I'm looking for here.

Anyone have an idea what I can do better here?

[gstelmack]

I've never had a Win7 update do anything like that. Sounds like something whacked your user profile, but I don't know what. Are you sure you logged back in as you and not under some other user id?

[sovereignstar]

No Windows Update should do anything that you describe. Something must've happened with your profile. Is there just the one user account set up? Check c:\users

Edit: I'm a little slow. :)

[QuikSand]

Under the C:/users folder, I now have my original profile, and another folder there created yesterday (that fits) called "public." I did think that perhaps I had been kicked out of my own profile, but I didn't see any evidence of that happening. Maybe it did, though -- that certainly seems to fit what I'm seeing.

[QuikSand]

For instance... when I open the Start Menu, the shadowed right column still shows "mjs" as the top item -- that's the name of my correct profile, and it has been there even when I had lost all my settings.

[sovereignstar]

Having a 'public' folder is normal.

[DanGarion]

I haven't had any windows updates for a couple weeks...

[gstelmack]

I haven't had any windows updates for a couple weeks...

This is actually a good point. If you've been keeping up-to-date, maybe spyware / virus screwed something up?

[QuikSand]

the plot, she thickens...

[DanGarion]

the plot, she thickens...

Sorry let me correct myself. I haven't had any that have needed my system to reboot for a couple weeks. Looking at my log there have in fact been some updates though.

Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB972270) Installation date: ‎1/‎13/‎2010 3:02 AM

Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool x64 - January 2010 (KB890830) Installation date: ‎1/‎13/‎2010 3:02 AM

Besides those the only other updates were for Security Essentials.

Check to see what is listed in your Update log.
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Windows Update\View update history

[QuikSand]

I just shot down the Norton security stuff that came packaged with my Dell, installed Avast!, and suddenly most of my original profile is back.

A little worrisome what might be going on now, but that suggests this was more than a reckless update. Thanks for the tips.