~DF?.TMP files removal and source?

1. What program is creating the ~DF<Letter><3 Numbers>.TMP (ex. ~DF3FD9.tmp) files in "C:\Documents and Settings\arete\Local Settings\Temp folder? Each time I restart/turn-on my machine the computer creates two of these files. Each file is 32K in size and the computer creates two file on each startup. After two months my laptop had over 200 of these files.

2. I have tried using CCleaner to remove these file by using custom and ~DF*.TMP but CCLEANER does not recognize the * wildcard and since the computer creates a new name each time I cannot add one name to delete all the files. How do I get ccleaner to automatically delete the old ~DF????.tmp files on startup?

3. Is there a way to find out which programs are using which files? When I try to delete the latest file ~DF file I get the error message it is being used by another program or user.

Your description and example don't match. Instead of ~DF[alpha][[3numeric].tmp or ~DF[numeric][2alpha][numeric].tmp, could it (also) be ~DF[numeric][alpha][numeric][alpha].tmp ?

If so, it's probably Microsoft Outlook and there's something wrong since they should clear when you close Outlook. They should only accumulate if Outlook does not properly close, e.g., shut down while "Not responding".

Your description and example don't match. Instead of ~DF[alpha][[3numeric].tmp or ~DF[numeric][2alpha][numeric].tmp, could it (also) be ~DF[numeric][alpha][numeric][alpha].tmp ?

If so, it's probably Microsoft Outlook and there's something wrong since they should clear when you close Outlook. They should only accumulate if Outlook does not properly close, e.g., shut down while "Not responding".

The files are being created by Microsoft Antispyware program (MSA). I know someone from The University of Colorado and they have a public machine with 600+ users/day and themachine is power cycled daily. After a month of using the MSA program on the machine these temporary files occupied 1.1GB of disk space. The MSA program is not cleaning up after itself. It is creating two new temporary files for each new user after a power cycle.

The file all begin with ~DF with a tmp extension.

That could be another source but I've seen the ~DFxxxx.tmp files for years on PC's that don't have Microsoft Antispyware. My observation is that a pair of such files (one 16KB & one 32KB) is created when I view an e-mail which contains an attachment or at the moment I add an attachment to an e-mail. Closing the e-mail doesn't seem to affect the files but they automatically delete when I close Outlook.

It could be that several Microsoft apps use the filename or run a common process that uses the filename. Another possibility is that the Microsoft Antispyware has a bug that is preventing the normal deletion of the files.

You can try open it in Notepad to see if there is anything in the file that makes sense...

Most of those files have nothing but gibberish in them that looks like some encrypted data. If they won't delete you can always use Unlocker to remove them.

You might like to take a look at my post in this subject:

http://forum.ccleaner.com/index.php?showtopic=4374

If CC Cleaner doesn't / won't delete these files, is it safe to do so mauually on a weekly basis?

Steve