Apps disappearing mysteriously - why?

RhinoCan

New Member
Messages
67
My mother, who lives in another city and who I support via TeamViewer, had at least one app, and maybe more, disappear mysteriously. Unfortunately, she is far from computer savvy so it's definitely possible that she has somehow done this to herself unintentionally. Then again, she is so UN-savvy that I doubt she could have done it to herself by accident, which makes me think there might be something else going on.

Let me explain. She had a game she liked called Hidden Words 365 which we had installed from the selection of free games at the Windows Store. She liked it enough to pay the money to unlock everything beyond the first few levels and enjoyed the game for a couple of weeks. Then she Skyped me to say the game was gone. I fired up TeamViewer and sure enough it was gone; not just missing from the Start menu but not even in the list of apps when you click the down arrow at the bottom of the Start menu. (She's running Windows 8.1.) I went to the Windows Store, found it and tried to install it again but didn't have an option to install, suggesting it was already installed. I poked around and eventually tried looking under My Apps in the Windows Store and it showed the game there but in a funny status. I don't remember what that status was but I right-clicked and found an option to install and did that; after that, the game was back and playable again. However, her scores on the various levels were completely gone as if she'd never played it before. Well, she didn't care about that and started playing again; all the levels were unlocked so it had clearly remembered that she paid for license to unlock the remaining level; it just hadn't remembered her scores for the levels she played.

After another few days, she called to say the game was gone again. She's been having some intermittent wireless connectivity issues since then so I haven't been able to troubleshoot this further. However, when I talked to her today, she told me TeamViewer had also gone missing. Reinstalling THAT was a real pain since she has almost no computer skills at all.

Is there any way she could be uninstalling these apps on herself WITHOUT right-clicking on the start menu icon and clicking on Uninstall? I just can't picture her doing that consciously. Is there another technique that she could have used to uninstall it, perhaps one that she could do inadvertently without realizing what she is doing?

Failing that, is there any OTHER explanation for why the apps would disappear?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS K55N
    CPU
    AMD A8-4500 APU with Radeon HD Graphics 1.90 GHz
    Motherboard
    not sure
    Memory
    8.00 GB installed, 7.46 GB usuable
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon
    Sound Card
    not sure
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Built-in laptop screen
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    one 750 GB
    PSU
    Not sure
    Case
    Not sure
    Cooling
    Not sure
    Keyboard
    Built in to laptop
    Mouse
    None; I use the touchpad
    Internet Speed
    6 Mbps down, 0.25 Mbps up
    Browser
    current versions of Firefox, Chrome and IE
    Antivirus
    Avast Free
    Other Info
    I *think* many of the questions to which I've answered "not sure" are irrelevant because it is a laptop but if you need to know specifically what model of cooling fans or keyboard or whatever where built in to the laptop, I can try to find that out if you tell me where to look. I don't see this information in the Windows/System display but maybe it is elsewhere. I'm not sure what a "PSU" is: Powe

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme 1502 (GX1502)
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 5820K 3.30 GHZ 64 bit 6-Core Processor
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-X99-UD3
    Memory
    G.Skill 16GB Quad Channel DDR4-2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0+ DDR5 4GB
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster ZxR 5.1
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ASUS PA24Q 24" Pro Art IPS LCD/LED Backlit 1920x1200
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1200 16:10
    Hard Drives
    SAMSUNG 850 EVO 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Internal SSD,
    Crucial MX100 512GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Internal SSD,
    WD WD10EZEX-00RKKA0 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 3.5 Internal HDD
    PSU
    EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 750W 80 Plus Gold Full Modular
    Case
    AZZA Cosmas Black Gaming Case
    Cooling
    Cool Master Hyper 212 Evo Dual 120mm, ( 2) Noctua PWM 120mm Case Fans (1) Gelid PWM 120mm Blue LED
    Keyboard
    Logitech K800 Illumiated Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball
    Internet Speed
    84mbps /94mbps
    Browser
    Mozilla Firefox 41.0.1 / Microsoft Edge/ IE 11
    Antivirus
    Norton Security 2015
    Other Info
    Pioneer BDR-209DBK 16x Blu-Ray Burner, LG 24x Dual Layer DVD Burner,
    StarTech Front Bay 22-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Multi Media Memory Card Reader,Logitech Z906 5.1 Speaker system

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme 1502 (GX1502)
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 5820K 3.30 GHZ 64 bit 6-Core Processor
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-X99-UD3
    Memory
    G.Skill 16GB Quad Channel DDR4-2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0+ DDR5 4GB
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster ZxR 5.1
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ASUS PA24Q 24" Pro Art IPS LCD/LED Backlit 1920x1200
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1200 16:10
    Hard Drives
    SAMSUNG 850 EVO 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Internal SSD,
    Crucial MX100 512GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Internal SSD,
    WD WD10EZEX-00RKKA0 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 3.5 Internal HDD
    PSU
    EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 750W 80 Plus Gold Full Modular
    Case
    AZZA Cosmas Black Gaming Case
    Cooling
    Cool Master Hyper 212 Evo Dual 120mm, ( 2) Noctua PWM 120mm Case Fans (1) Gelid PWM 120mm Blue LED
    Keyboard
    Logitech K800 Illumiated Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball
    Internet Speed
    84mbps /94mbps
    Browser
    Mozilla Firefox 41.0.1 / Microsoft Edge/ IE 11
    Antivirus
    Norton Security 2015
    Other Info
    Pioneer BDR-209DBK 16x Blu-Ray Burner, LG 24x Dual Layer DVD Burner,
    StarTech Front Bay 22-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Multi Media Memory Card Reader,Logitech Z906 5.1 Speaker system
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