desktop folders gone after Windows update

I am running Windows 7 Home Premium. Ran an update, actually 20 of them when shutting down and on rebooting all seemed well except a good number of folders that were on my desktop were missing, as in GONE. I tried to find a particular item that was in one of these missing folders in hope that I could trace things out and recover them. The search failed to find the item, and in fact seems to have some how gotten altered as well. Practically nothing will be found when I try to use it for finding things that I have always been able to find.

Any suggestions on what I can do to recover from this? I would like to know what to try before I resort to doing the 'restore to an earlier time' route as I have no idea what else I might mess up doing that.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

 

Thanks for the input, I was hoping to avoid the restore point thingy but will definitely do just that if needed. Your advice is most appreciated/

 

I have the same errors and most annoying as it happens on a regular basis. Desktop icons all MS and only "Control Panel - Help and Support - Windows Updates - Computer - Solitaire ", third party icons are not affected. A quick solution but not a cure as it still occurs is to open a file and include all the mentioned Icons, then when needed, to open ,the file and "Copy" each icon individually to the desktop. It does the job but not a cure.

 

Thank you BobbyScot. I can't understand why this happens but as you state it is most frustrating! Your advice is good and I will give it a try. It IS better than nothing so it is a great help!