Deleting files creates copies

Hello:

I ran into a very odd glitch on my father's computer, which is running Windows XP.

Whenever we tried deleting a file, it would create a copy of the file instead. Deleting both of these copies, would create two more copies, etc.

My father has literally hundreds of duplicate jpegs in his folders now, with seemingly no way to delete them.

Has anyone else run across ths problem? Is there a Window's setting amiss? Has his sytem been infected? Could it have to do with a 3rd party utility with "unerase" run amok?

Any help anyone could provide is much apprciated.

Thanks!

 

Have you tried shift-delete?

 

How are you deleting the files ? By keyboard (delete key) or by mouse (highlighting and choosing delete) ?

 

Yes - precisely.

This happens if I use the delete key...if I drag them to the trashcan..or even if I use the right-click contextual menu.

 

As I remember, this happened no matter how we tried deleting the files.

But, is there a difference between the methods that might account for it?

 

I think that it is either Malware or a virus causing it.

Download, install and run SpyBot. Update the definitions before scanning, and then allow it to delete what it finds.

And, run this online virus check

 

Thanks, Ill try it out.

 

there is no difference but when the keys on the keyboard goes bad or is remapped by some programs it makes a lot of difference.
Its just a question of minimising the variables.