WALLET DISAPPEARING AFTER INSTALLATION
I am experiencing a similar problem to djmcg. I have tried installing Electrum-2.8.2 on a Windows 7, 64-bit computer. The installation seems to go well, but when I close the wallet, it disappears and is nowhere to be found. When I trace the "default_wallet" (1st installation) and wallet_1 (2nd attempted installation as per ThomasV's suggestion) all that is there in the Roaming folder are two 2KB files. There is no shortcut icon on the Desktop, or anywhere else. Nor can I see any installed wallet.
I have gone back to the saved executable file and started the installation up again, inputted my password and it recognised the Appearance change I had previously made i.e. to list BTC as bits.
However, when I closed the wallet, it again disappeared, nowhere to be found.
When I tried ThomasV's suggestion and renamed "default_wallet" to "wallet_1". The program asked for my seed words (to restore), which I gave as given in the 1st installation. The program also asked for a new password which I repeated as that given in the 1st installation. Again, when the wallet was closed, it disappeared!
It seems that the only way to get into the wallet is to keep on installing it using the executable installation program.
Did you also try not using an encryption password during the creation of a new wallet file? Try leaving it blank and seeing if the issue still occurs. The wallet encryption feature is relatively new so if we can isolate it as being caused by this it would be helpful.