Strange file named "~"?

[Graham]

In the past week, a strange file has appeared on my
desktop with a file name of "~". At first, I deleted it
without opening it as I had no idea what it was. I then
ran McAfee Virus Scan on my pc and received a clean bill
of health -- no viruses found. But the file keeps coming
back. I finally opened the file with Windows Notepad and
it appears to be an a list of names who have sent or
received email from me and the file gets updated as we
use our email account.

I have deleted this file repeatedly and it always manages
to come back. I have updated McAfee several times,
downloaded and installed all Windows updates from
windowsupdate.microsoft.com with no demonstrable effect.
I have also checked my Outlook Express sent mail to see
if a worm is sending my address book out but there
doesn't seem to be any outbound traffic (at least that is
being registered).

What is this file and how can I stop it from being
created? Is it merely a temp file that is somehow
showing up on my desktop? And how can I be sure this is
not evidence of a malevolent intrusion into my PC?
Thanks.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

it's a temp windows address book file. it was caused by a recent update. You
can delete it if it bothers you. AFAIK, there isn't a fix yet, but check the
outlook express groups or www.tomsterdam.com/insideOE/index.htm to be sure.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
http://www.poremsky.com - http://www.cdolive.com

Expert Zone http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone

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