For what it's worth, in the past (2021-2024) I was using a localhost webdev app (laragon) for just that, localhost webdev. I made backups to a dedicated drive, and pretty much forgot about those backups. There was also one backup on the C:\ of windows.

Did a Malwarebytes scan of all drives on that workstation and that scan reported three issues, all ngrok, listed each time as "Riskware.Ngrok", type "Malware".

Could be nothing give the time lag. But thought it worth mentioning so those of you more knowledgeable could comment.