Thanks, I think I will uninstall the patch. I remember seeing that file *.WA~ listed in the same folder as my *.WAB file (also the tilde file itself was there and on my desktop). I found it when I did a search for the tilde (~) on my computer to try and find out where it came from. I recognized the *.WA~ as the way that MS makes backup copies and distribution copies in their software packages (like on the XP disk) so I left it alone, but my concern at the time was tha t some invasive program was making copies of that file and trying to send it out through my mail. One more thing that I remember about that tilde file is that it is also very specific about copying my cookies associated with my history files including my login files for such sites as Amazon, E-Bay, and my bank. I may be experiencing a problem with a simple glitch in one of MS's programs, but the information it is trying to send out is not a simple matter. If it were just my address book entries, ok, add my recent history, ...o...k, add my cookies, i'm nervous, add a Word doc that is open when the program creates the tilde file, now I can no longer accept that this is just a glitch. I believe MS has a security issue that had better be looked into. BTW since I began writing to this site (today) and responding to these replys to my post I have been hit with four viruses in my e-mail which hasn't happened in over three months
----- Juan wrote: ----
Greetings
I saved this message from last year, hope it clears your doubts
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------
Mystery solved! It is the result of a windows update 330994 patch. You ge
the temp file after a change is made to your address book in Outloo
express. You can see if you have the patch by going to IE....Help...Abou
and seeing if the patch is listed there. I made a change to my address boo
this morning and "Bingo" the file appeared
Here is the info I obtained! Phewwwwww! Glad that's over with
One of the "fixes" from MS several months ago causes this glitch
What that file is (which I believe you will see is named "~") is you
yourname.wa~ file which on my PC resides in C:\Windows\Applicatio
Data\Microsoft\Address Book
That file is the backup for yourname.wab (the OE Address Book). But now
after the glitch, the .wa~ file is no longer getting updated when you make
change to Address Book. Rather it goes to your Desktop as "~" instead of t
C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book as yourname.wa~
However, your Address Book, itself, is still getting updated. So unless yo
worry about the backup no longer being updated(what good is it, anyway??)
you can delete the "~" file. Or if you cannot live without the update
backup .wa~ file, then just rename that suspicious "~" file to yourname.wa
and send it to the C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book folde
(replacing the existing and now outdated yourname.wa~ file)
Supposedly MS was working on a fix many months ago, but I have seen n
announcement of one yet, and none of the recent MS fixes have cured th
problem
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
That "~" (tilde) file is most probably appearing as the result of installin
the "April 2003, Cumulative Patch for Outlook Express (330994)". Microsof
is aware of the problem and is supposedly working on a fix. Many people ar
experiencing this problem and from what I've read about this problem tha
icon will also reappear when you reply to an e-mail and you have you
Outlook Express set up to enter the persons e-mail address to your addres
book whenever you reply to an e-mail. You can either just put up with it o
follow the uninstall directions for the patch at the link below
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/330994/default.as
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DaBoss
Site Admin
Joined: 11 Mar 2003
Posts: 316
Location: Santa Maria, CA
http://www.filext.com
http://filext.com/faq/article.php?id=002
---------------------Original Message------------------------
BrianT said:
Just about every day while I am on the internet a program in my computer
runs and creates a file with the name simply ~ with no extension. This file
contains a lot of code, but also contains all my e-mail addresses from my
WAB file and all the recent history in my computer. Once it had even copied
an open word document's contents. I believe my Zone Alarm has stopped it
from going out, but my Norton antivirus 2003 (fully updated) does not detect
any infection. This has happened about 6 months after I had installed my XP,
NAV, Zone Alarm and BlackIce programs. I might sound a bit over protected
and paranoid except that I have had some bad experiences with viruses in the
past and wanted to be sure it never happened again. Is this some kind of
fragment saved to my desktop as a result of a problem with Outlook or is it
the indication of a virus? Is there a monitoring program that can log all
program events in the computer durring a one or two hour time frame? I am
not concerned about the file size, but if I can log the events on my
computer I can track the program that created that file by comparing the
file properties and the log time. If I can find out what creates the file I
can then go to Symantec and get a fix. Please help, and thanks.
