Program Files Folder Inaccessible, Taking Ownership Does Nothing

This all started when I recently had some malwares/viruses roaming around my laptop one day. I had managed to get rid of it all but it left my Direct Console 2.0 useless (I have an ASUS G-50V, Vista Premium 64-bit). I've tried reinstalling it and it just wouldn't load, no error message or anything (it did show up on taskmanager but no window appeared).

So trying to find a solution on google I ended up installing .net Framework 4.0. However, after restarting i started getting a ton of error messages about files in the Program Files folder, and then I realized it had just completely disappeared (rather, all the files inside disappeared). First the error messages said the folder was "corrupt and unreadable."

I navigated to the folder and tried clicking it, which then another error message popped up saying "Access is denied." I tried almost every solution I found on google, changing ownership and such, but I still cannot open the folder. Moreover, I cannot repair or uninstall any program that is or has been in the Program Files which I'm assuming has to do with the permission issues. I noticed this when I ran the setup for Direct Console 2.0 and tried to repair it, only giving me an error saying "The Installer has insufficient privileges to modify this file: C:Program Files (x86)ASUSOvClk.dll." But this also makes no sense to me as this is the x86 program files folder, which I can access.

I checked both of the folders and TrustedInstaller has ownership to both of them.

*Edit - I just checked the ASUS folder inside my Program Files (x86) where the only group assigned to it for security is "Everyone" and it had no access whatsoever.

I would like to know if there is any possible way to fix this and if the files inside the folder are still there as this is very frustrating to deal with. Most of my ASUS programs were in the Program Files, including the hotkey manager is really useful to me. Thanks a lot.


In case you need to know:

As for the what I did to deal with malwares and viruses I mentioned before, I did install Malwarebytes on another computer with updated definitions and loaded it on a flash drive here, removing whatever malwares it found. Even after this though (and this has been a consistent problem), mbam.exe would disappear after installing Malwarebytes regularly on my own laptop.

Thinking there was some virus or other malware laying around that it didn't pick up, I downloaded and installed AVG. I updated it and full scanned, which found more viruses and did fix the issue of mbam.exe disappearing after install. At this point I installed Malwarebytes again, updated, and scanned again, finding 1 or 2 trojans and I think at this point there shouldn't be any viruses/malwares causing issues, but of course I could be wrong.