my audio files suddenly have different icons

Hi

I'm not sure if this is the right forum, as I'm not sure my PC has a virus, but here goes anyway.

My OS is Windows XP.

I've been recording a lot of streamed audio with Audacity, and saving it as .wav files. Some of them I convert to mp3 using Lamedrop. Until now, every file has had a pale blue crotchet as its icon.

A couple of days ago, I needed to edit a short video, so downloaded a few free programs (Videopad, Virtualdub, AVS4you, Windows Live Movie Maker). The last one wouldn't install, and the others either didn't work with the codec of the video, or (with AVS4you) put a watermark in the middle of the screen. One of them I downloaded from Softonic, which insisted on downloading its own downloader first. I also remember some of them asking me to install toolbars, options that I unchecked.

Anyway, I uninstalled all of them when I found they weren't what I wanted, and thought I'd got away with it (ie: not got lumbered with malware).

I also tried editing the video with the version of Windows Movie Maker that was already on the PC, but it didn't use the codec of this video either.

As I say, I thought I hadn't given my PC any malware by installing these programs. However, I've just looked at all the .wavs and mp3s on my computer, and now they ALL have a different icon next to the file name: it's a sheet of paper with the Windows Media Player icon on top of it. I've hundreds of audio files that have taken months to make, and now they all have this icon next to the file name.

So, what's happened? My biggest fear is that something from one of those downloaded video editing programs has been quietly reprocessing all these audio files behind the scenes, maybe lowering their quality or even putting viruses into each one.

I'm scared to move the files onto another computer, or onto my music player, in case it spreads something.

If anyone can have a guess at what's been done to these files, I'd be grateful. Ideally, I'd like to get the old icons back as well.

Two bits of info: (1) I've scanned the PC with Malwarebytes and it hasn't found anything and (2) I notice that new audio files that I create get this new icon as well.

Any advice anyone can give will be very gratefully received.

 

Just one other thing. Either in the 'mouseover' box or in 'properties' (can't remember which), I saw 'dbpoweramp'. That's strange, because although I've got the installation files for dbpoweramp on my hard drive, and might have actually installed the program, I can't ever remember using it. I've been back to the audio files just now but can't get the 'dbpoweramp' name to come up - as I say, I can't quite remember where it was in each file.

Could one of those video editing programs have sneaked dbpoweramp onto my PC and somehow used it to process my audio files? I notice that dbpoweramp was in the list of programs in the startup menus, though I can't remember installing it.