I almost did not post my question because this is so hard to describe. Thanks for your post JDC but I use Metapad, instead of Notepad, but I type or c/p what I want and save it in Metapad and then save it to my Desktop so that I can later read it. After having gone through the motions of saving the "note" to my desktop I go to my desktop and it is not there. This started several days ago and so I now have to do a windows search and it is shown in the the folder the name of which I do not know unless it is "search results". Vague isn't it.
BTW, I use the Classic Start Menu hence the 'search' word I used.