Compressed User folder, now a lot is missing. What can I do?

[Windows Central Question]

Compressed User folder, now a lot is missing

I, some how, found myself w/ an option to Compress Folder to Save Space on Disk (or something like that) when I looked into the Preferences when you right click on the User Account folder
That took a while. But when it finished, every icon now has 2 blue arrows pointing toward eachother

The problem now is that, when I right click on a file, any file (or folder) & select Preferences...nothing happens.
Then down on the Start icon, if I click on it....nothing happens. Only thing that does anything is when I right click on the Start icon
Then I start finding out, by seeing some popups, that a lot of "mapping", "Security ID'S" & "pathways" are now missing.....to a LOT of stuff. Even the stuff on my external hard drive. Can't access Preferences on those files/folders, either. Or much else, for that matter

Main Q is....how do I restore things to how they were just an hour ago????

Also....WTH happened!?! Why'd all the maps & pathways get cut?
Why does it seem like I have only 1/2 a laptop now?

 

[teckris]

Re: Compressed User folder, now a lot is missing

You might have compressed the folder and the OS is not able to work with that. I had similar issue when I had enabled compression on my WindowsDrive which caused boot failure or something like that.

As you said you only compressed User folder, you can try changing it. Refer picture attached

 

[SoulSurvivor713]

Re: Compressed User folder, now a lot is missing

That was a 1st thought to try....but I can't access the Preferences when I right click on anything
Is there another way around to that selection area?

Is there a way to "restore to older version" kinda thing?

 

[teckris]

How to Disable Windows File Compression

Sorry for being late. You can try the above method with command prompt. so u dont need preferences option.