After updating or installing a package in my project, I've noticed that NPM is creating an empty etc folder and multiple .cmd files (refer to image below). Additionally, my package.json file is not being updated automatically anymore. I have to manually adjust the version of the package NPM has installed.
The only change I can think of making recently was adding the nodejs folder as a Windows environment variable to access a global command. Besides that, I don't recall doing anything that would cause this strange behavior from NPM.
Does anyone have any insight into what I might be doing wrong? And how can I go about fixing this issue?
Thank you!
Update: I have observed that the creation of the empty etc folder occurs with every NPM action performed (whether it's install, publish, start, update, etc).