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OE 6 + SP1 - ' ~ ' file on Desktop?????

Discussion in 'Internet Explorer & Microsoft Edge' started by PeteC, 2003/05/13.

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  1. 2003/05/13
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff Thread Starter

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    About a week ago - after closing OE 6 + SP1 (Win XP Pro + SP1) a file appeared on my desktop, simply labelled ' ~ ' - without the quotes. It has no attribute, simply ' ~ '.

    Opening it in Notepad showed it to be a coded version of my Address Book (all names in plain text).

    Deleted it, but it reappeared a couple of times when OE was closed and have subsequently found it in Users files (deleted) and Windows/System32 (not deleted - yet)

    It no longer appears on the Desktop.

    Anyone any ideas on this :confused:

    Ran NAV and Housecall on the drive - completely clean

    TIA
     
    Last edited: 2003/05/13
    PeteC,
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  2. 2003/05/13
    daxer

    daxer Inactive

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    Those are just the temporary files. these are generated, in case you something wrong happens (like power failure or something), you can then recover your old address book.

    If they bother you too much, you can delete them if you want.
     
    daxer,
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  4. 2003/05/13
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff Thread Starter

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    I had an inkling it was a temporary file, but why on earth did it suddenly appear on the Desktop :confused:
     
    PeteC,
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  5. 2003/05/13
    Welshjim

    Welshjim Inactive

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    Welshjim,
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  6. 2003/05/13
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff Thread Starter

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    Magic - thanks for the explanation! Absolutely spot on!

    The connection with the recent OE patch passed me by.
     
    PeteC,
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  7. 2003/05/13
    Welshjim

    Welshjim Inactive

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    PeteC--On behalf of "Magic ", thanks for posting back. Always good to know information was of help.
     
    Welshjim,
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  8. 2003/05/14
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Hi guys!

    Is this bug OS specific? I´m on WinME and have not noticed any strange icons on my desktop.

    "330994" was installed on my system on 04/24/03
    My *.wab is dated 05/14/03 and the *.wa~ is dated 04/23/03

    Has my system stopped creating backups instead?

    Thanks for Your time,
    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  9. 2003/05/14
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff Thread Starter

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    Hi Christer,

    Looking at the dates you could well be right - maybe it doesn't show the ' ~ ' on the ME desktop.

    Assume you have read Welshjim's link - I would not lose sleep over it!
     
    PeteC,
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  10. 2003/05/14
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Well, "yawn ", neither will I, was only thinking out loud to get some feedback on my thoughts.

    ZzZzZz ...... ;) ...... ZzZzZz,
    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  11. 2003/05/14
    Welshjim

    Welshjim Inactive

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    Christer--On some PC's the ~ file goes to Desktop and on some to C:\. And perhaps on yours to another directory. But it does seems suspicious that your .wa~ file is no longer updating.
    Unfortunately a Find on ~ will produce about 10,000 files since it is finding all the DOS name files!! (Though I have not tried .~ or ~.)
     
    Welshjim,
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  12. 2003/05/14
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Hi Jim!

    You were correct that the ~ file was tucked away elsewhere on my computer. I didn´t have to search for it, it was on C:\~.

    I renamed it x.wab and double-clicked on it and it certainly is a copy of my address book. It´s dated 05/14/03.

    However, I did a search on My Computer for ~ and it found only 36 files with that "thing-what-ever-its-called ".

    23 of them are those temporary files that Word creates when a document is opened, wonder why they still are there ......

    9 of them are *.doc files that I remember importing from a computer which only had WordPad.

    4 of them are mixed, among them my *.wa~ and the ~ file.

    Thanks for teaching some lateral thinking,
    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  13. 2003/05/14
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    I took a closer look on my *.wab, *.wa~ and ~ files:

    The *.wab and ~ files have the exactly same date and time.

    The *.wa~ file is dated 04/23/03, the day before "330994" was installed (04/24/03).

    It seems like the ~ file is our new backup.

    Sorry ...... :eek: ...... for thinking out loud again,
    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  14. 2003/05/14
    Welshjim

    Welshjim Inactive

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    Christer--I think in that thread for which I provided the URL I suggested that if you really want your .wa~ to be up to date, rename the ~ file to yourusername.wa~ and replace the old yourusername.wa~ with it.
    However, I never have really understood the purpose of the Address Book Backup .wa~ file. :D
     
    Welshjim,
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  15. 2003/05/14
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Jim, I´ll rename it if the need should arise.
    Could it be that OE will use the *.wa~ file if the *.wab file is corrupted when OE is started?
     
    Christer,
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  16. 2003/05/15
    Welshjim

    Welshjim Inactive

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    Christer--I suspect that if the AB gets corrupt you could rename the .wa~ file and start using it, but I doubt an automatic shift would occur. However, out of all the many files in Windows, wonder why this one has its own private backup? (Just a rhetorical question :D )
     
    Welshjim,
    #15
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