ITunes automatically wipes playlists and settings

HI.  AFTER YEARS OF TROUBLE FREE USE I FOUND THE iTUNES SCREEN AS IF I HAD NEVER USED IT BEFORE HAVING RETURNED TO DEFAULT SETTINGS AND WIPED ALL PLAYLISTS.   IS THIS THEIR WAY OF GETTING ME TO LOAD AN UP TO DATE VERSION.   SO I DO THAT.  LEARNING THE NEW WAY OF DOING THINGS AND UPLOADING MUSIC FILES I THEN FOUND THAT THE PROBLEM PERSISTS WITH EVERYTHING WIPED OVERNIGHT.   IT'S LIKE A VIRUS BUT I HAVE NEVER HAD A VIRUS.  I RUN WINDOWS 7.   PROBABLY THIS IS A COMMON PROBLEM.  WORKING OUT HOW TO GET HELP AND THEN GETTING THIS FAR WITH MY QUESTION HAS TAKEN HALF THE AFTERNOON.  I AM LOSING THE WILL TO LIVE.  ANY IDEAS ?  THANKS.

Thanks, and I noted what you said.
I found quickly that deleting AVG didn't solve it, but the fault seems to have been mine.  D'oh !
I had found the iTunes filing system tiresome in that I had to burrow down so deeply to find the music files passing through all sorts of irrelevant stuff along the way.  I found that I could move those files around so it might well be that by trying to tidy it up I somehow messed up the lines of communication.  
I burrowed around in 'my computer' (the C drive ?)  ie My Computer / Packard Bell / Users / Charles / Music .....  where the chain of commands goes on even longer.   It takes some savvy even knowing what the C drive is.   I noticed that iTunes files were empty.   I found them elswhere though, probably due to earlier meddling.
Anyway, I have just spent ages copying everything into all its rightful place again in libraries and then back into the C-drive for good measure.
I was just a bit baffled as to whey loading iTunes afresh hadn't done all that but probably something to do with not wanting to wipe my entire music collection in the process, so it's just as well that it didn't.
I created another problem for myself along the same lines yesterday having made a short switch to  Windows Media Player in order to bypass troublesome iTunes.  But that reminded me how badly displayed Media Player is so I switched back only to find that Media Player somehow wiped some of the main iTunes folders in the process.  
That's when an urgent hunt began and I stumbled across them elsewhere.
So you were right that Tunes couldn't update library files because, yes, files were disrupted.  But it looks to have been me who disrupted them.
It's confusing and I am still not sure but it did all spark into life perfectly well today.
For you trying to be helpful, it's almost impossible to know what the complainant has been muddling with.
I just didn't like having to click 'my music' and a forest of other files before finding the actual music.  Probably it was me who did the damage in tampering with that.  
I am still a bit baffled because no hiccups occurred for ages.  And reloading the whole thing from scratch should have lined it all up correctly again.   We'll see but for now its ok having got it back to something like it was.  In particular, I copied 'iTunes' folders back into 'my computer' (the C Drive) from where they had somehow disappeared.  Result ? just one odd little point that the 'Libaries / My Music / iTunes ' now has the tag "C  " attached.  If it works, I don't care about that.  I only mention it as a curiosity in case you are interested.
In short, it looks like just another case of complainants causing grief from their own meddling.
I listen to hours every day.  I love the display.  So it really did matter to me.  And later it will synch with other iTunes gadgets that I am likely to buy for that reason.  So helpful techies like you are valuable to them and essential to me.  Thanks.
Meanwhile, I did like AVG but Microsoft Security Essentials ?  I noticed that and will pay attention.
TTFN

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