Any ideas what this is? .. file called "~"

[Guest]

Hello all

I have a file that keeps appearing on my C drive (comes back if I delete it)
which is just called "~" (no quotation marks and no extension. If I view the
file in notepad, it's all scrambled, but I can see lots and lots of email
addresses that I recognise .. probably everything from my address book,
maybe more.

Just looked in the recycle bin and noticed that all the versions of the file
that I've deleted have been 504kb.

Sophos antivirus doesn't seem to find anything, and I don't know how to look
into it using Google or anything because all I have to go on is "~", which
doesn't do much in a search engine.

Any ideas what this is and what I can do about it?

Dee

 

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

Hello all

I have a file that keeps appearing on my C drive (comes back if I delete it)
which is just called "~" (no quotation marks and no extension. If I view the
file in notepad, it's all scrambled, but I can see lots and lots of email
addresses that I recognise .. probably everything from my address book,
maybe more.

Just looked in the recycle bin and noticed that all the versions of the file
that I've deleted have been 504kb.

Sophos antivirus doesn't seem to find anything, and I don't know how to look
into it using Google or anything because all I have to go on is "~", which
doesn't do much in a search engine.

Any ideas what this is and what I can do about it?

groups.google.com for 'file names ~' ought turn up several hits ..
basically it's a copy of the OE6 address book which a recent patch/bug
from MS now leaves lying around on your desktop whenever you edit
(open?) the wab. Just delete it and ignore it.

 

[Roger Parks]

Hello all

I have a file that keeps appearing on my C drive (comes back if I delete it)
which is just called "~" (no quotation marks and no extension. If I view the
file in notepad, it's all scrambled, but I can see lots and lots of email
addresses that I recognise .. probably everything from my address book,
maybe more.

Just looked in the recycle bin and noticed that all the versions of the file
that I've deleted have been 504kb.

Sophos antivirus doesn't seem to find anything, and I don't know how to look
into it using Google or anything because all I have to go on is "~", which
doesn't do much in a search engine.

Any ideas what this is and what I can do about it?

Dee

It is apparently an unintended consequence of "April 2003, Cumulative Patch
for Outlook Express (330994)"; a temporary work file when using your address
book.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/330994/default.asp

 

[Boyd Williston]

Hello all

I have a file that keeps appearing on my C drive (comes back if I
delete it) which is just called "~" (no quotation marks and no
extension. If I view the file in notepad, it's all scrambled, but I can
see lots and lots of email addresses that I recognise .. probably
everything from my address book, maybe more.

Just looked in the recycle bin and noticed that all the versions of the
file that I've deleted have been 504kb.

Sophos antivirus doesn't seem to find anything, and I don't know how to
look into it using Google or anything because all I have to go on is
"~", which doesn't do much in a search engine.

Any ideas what this is and what I can do about it?

Dee

It's a consequence of a recent upgrade you installed from MicroSoft. It
doesn't delete a temporary file (~) that's created when you modify your
address book.

Just delete it and don't worry.

 

[Guest]

It is apparently an unintended consequence of "April 2003, Cumulative Patch
for Outlook Express (330994)"; a temporary work file when using your address
book.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/330994/default.asp

Thanks a lot, I was getting worried

 

[Birdynumnum]

I have the same problem with my computer.

An other stupid thing from Windows, why make a temp file ~ with all the
e-mail address of my computer on it ?It will just give the idea to someone
to create an other virus and reach that ~ file without any problem !!

Can someone tell me if by puting the ~ file on read only is working??

Thanks

 

[Shane]

It's a bug, not intentional. And it is a copy of the address book. Rename it
with the .wab extension and you'll see. And why should it be easier (for a
virus/hacker/whatever) to read than the original address book?

And hasn't that party ended yet?


Shane

 

[nicky]

And FWIW, it only appears when you add someone to your address
book......
Heather

Not just if you add someone..also if you delete or amend details..

Nicky

 

[Banana Republic]

The symbol "~" it is used also at the top of the letter "n" in some Spanish
words such us: "Niño", "Muñeco", "Coña", "Buñuelo" and many more.

Before the existence of Windows in its different platforms, there was an
operating system called DOS, there you will see also many files that start
with the symbol "~".

I still have an old computer (remember the 286 computers) somewhere in the
basement with a DOS operating system and a 3.11 version of Windows.

Banana Republic

 

[Shane]

I've only just got off the other computer where I'm burning a CD-ROM to auto
install DR-DOS7.03, MS-DOS 6.22, and WFW 3.11 on the same partition.
Unfortunately I don't have an old computer or an video card so can only get
16 colours in WFW.


Shane

 

[Heather]

Si Senor.......even if you are Canadian. Not all *that many* spanish
names in the Toronto area......grin.

Sra. Figgs

 

[Roger Parks]

Any idea why the temp ~ file appears in multiple directories? I first
noticed it in the root directory, deleted it, but have found the identical
file in other directories. No problem in deleting it but how many
directories does Outlook Express use as temp file depositories?

Havn't figured out the multiple directory business; it usually shows up in
root on my box. Might have something to do with the most recently focused,
still-opened directory?

I have a little cleanup script (.bat) that deletes MS refuse, such as
cookies, MSIMGSIZ.DAT, index.dat, etc. at boot up time, so have now added
ANOTHER ms file (c:\~) to it.

Any word from MS on a patch for the patch?

nope - but with MS, I usually prefer the devil I know to the one I don't.
So I'll let someone else test-fly the patch patch.

 

[* * Chas]

I've only just got off the other computer where I'm burning a CD-ROM to auto
install DR-DOS7.03, MS-DOS 6.22, and WFW 3.11 on the same partition.
Unfortunately I don't have an old computer or an video card so can only get
16 colours in WFW.

I ran a multi-boot system PCDOS 7.0, MSDOS 6.2, WFWG 3.11
and NT3.51until late 1996 when I had to switch to Win95B. I
still have these installed on that old system and I fire it
up every once in a while.

WFWG 3.11 ran rock solid on top of PCDOS 7.0 but I had some
DOS utilities that wouldn't run on it so I had to boot into
MSDOS to use them.

Helix Software had a program called Hurricane that fixed the
WFWG 3.11 memory resource problems and made it one of the
fastest MS OS. They also had a great DOS memory manager that
allowed DOS to use up to 256MB of RAM.

 

[cquirke]

It's a bug, not intentional. And it is a copy of the address book. Rename it
with the .wab extension and you'll see. And why should it be easier (for a
virus/hacker/whatever) to read than the original address book?

Because its's in a known location with known name?

--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -

Error Messages Are Your Friends

 

[Shane]

I've never had one appear on the desktop. Meanwhile, the address book
isn't

exactly difficult to find either, is it?

Or indeed the root of C (I don't keep it on C).


Shane

 

[Banana Republic]

Yep, you forgot to add the "~" on top of Señor. Nice talking to you.

Banana Republic

 

[cquirke]

I've never had one appear on the desktop.

Was thinking of one always in C:\

Meanwhile, the address book isn't
exactly difficult to find either, is it?

Depends on the level of access you have secured. Some toe-holds may
let you read a file of known name and location, but don't allow you to
query the regsitry or browse. From there, a C:\~ is was easier to
access than a C:\Guess\This\Path\WhatName.wab

--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -

Error Messages Are Your Friends

 

[Shane]

Was thinking of one always in C:\

The early reports were almost exclusively of one on the desktop, but no
doubt that's because you can't miss one on the desktop.


Shane

 

[The Animaniac]

i have been using Outlook Express for years and only recently did the "~"
file appear so it must be something other than adding deleting and amending
the address book because it has never been there before, onlyu in thw last
month or two, also the one on my rooty directory is nearly 200Kb

 

[YK]

i have been using Outlook Express for years and only recently did the
"~" file appear so it must be something other than adding deleting
and amending the address book because it has never been there before,
onlyu in thw last month or two, also the one on my rooty directory is
nearly 200Kb

It is a known bug with one of the updates to OE. MS is working on it.
Just delete the file.