I have "recent folders" (or whatever the heck it is turned off), but I DID have a bunch of key folders pinned to my Quick Access in Windows Explorer. I just noticed they're all gone, replaced with the "stock" folders (e.g., "Desktop", "Downloads", "Pictures") AND something CALLED "Google Drive".

I don't BELIEVE I've ever saved anything to Google Drive - maybe unintentionally on my phone, but never on my PC.

So, three questions come to mind:
1. Did Google (or something Google-adjacent) just hijack my file system?
2. Is there a way to find / restore my old settings (I'll eventually be able to restore from muscle memory, but what a pain). and
3. Anybody have any guess as to how this happened?

I just noticed this morning, haven't used the PC much since Friday, and I don't know that I would have noticed since Wednesday - last time I created / saved a bunch of NEW documents.

You can revert to defaults view in explorer if that is the case. Sometimes some programs like ccleaner "removes" that settings also. Google drive itself I doubt that can CHANGE that settings.Thanks. Don't want "defaults" - that will start piling up "recently used" folders and, I don't remember quite why, I liked the way Win 7 did that better.

It's just so weird that everything would disappear, and Google Drive would suddenly appear (the only things uploaded are hiking maps that I saved on a work PC in Milwaukee in 2015), at apparently the same time.