~ file appears on desktop

[Colin Pickett]

Over the past month or so I have started getting a non-
program associated file called '~' appearing on my desktop
at seemingly random intervals (WinXP Home Edition - with
all Service Packs and Updates available).

Opening the file in Notepad reveals text recognisable as
the entire list of email addresses from my address book!

If I delete the file it reappears after a few days.

Obviously I am suspicious that there is a trojan or virus
at work here, but a fully updated version of Norton Anti-
Virus 2002 does not reveal anything on a full system scan.

Any suggestion as to what is going on here? Is it likely
to be malicious or is there a simple explanation? How do I
stop it happening?

Thanks,

Colin Pickett

 

[Code-Curious Mom]

simple explanation--it's a bug caused by one of those updates--MVP Kelly
reports that MS is working on a fix.
I've managed to
change mine so that they appear elsewhere instead of on the desktop. See
links below for more info. Try some of the suggestions or just delete the
file when it appears.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...express.*&num=30&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...ok%20express%20leaves%20file&lr=&num=30&hl=en

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=..._usubject=weird&lr=&num=30&as_scoring=d&hl=en