Weird file shows up on desktop

[Hard_Boiled]

Recently I have been getting this weird file, called rdxr020305.dat, that shows up on my desktop. I would delete the file, because I had no idea where it came from, but it will come back later. Just a few minutes ago it showed up again. I deleted it, then I thought I'd search my hard drive for any other instances of it.

The file also is in my Winnt folder and my Winnt/system32 folder. I'm just wondering what this file is, why it shows up on my desktop, and if it is safe to delete it out of the Winnt folders in hopes that it won't pop up on my desktop anymore.

TYIA to anyone who can help me out.

 

[Homer]

Take this with a grain of salt. I may be a slightly knowledgeable user, but it's all home grown low level knowledge:

I'd be suspicious about this file. It's in some important places. Has any user of your machine or network been practicing unsafe computing? Do you have an updated antivirus product installed? (If not, consider going to TREND and running an online scan.)

I think part of the file name is a date - March 5, 2002, in European format.

Have you searched the registry for that filename, or the part of the filename before the date? If it keeps recurring on your desktop I bet you'll find some reference to it.

I'd be interested to hear how this turns out.

 

[Hard_Boiled]

I thought it might be a virus, as I currently am not running any antivirus software. Running the online scan did not detect anything. About the date theory, does all of Europe use the same format for dates? I thougt the English used the format of dd/mm/yy. Regardless of any of that, I think you're right that it very well could be a date.

The files were both created on March 13 it says, yet the one in my \Winnt folder was modified March 19, while the one in my \Winnt\system32 folder was modified March 8. Very puzzling to me, internet searches have been uneventful.

Other than the file popping up on my desktop, the computer is fine. I'm going to go putz around on my computer and do some normal things, and see if the file pops up again.

 

[Hard_Boiled]

It was spyware, or whatever that junk is called. I must have picked it up from a website or something, because there was a file by the name of rdxr020304 in my temporary internet files. I found that out using Ad Aware from lavasoft. I had forgot about that nifty little program. It detected it as spyware from a source called Wurld, which had several other files and registry keys which it detected and deleted. So I guess I'm clean now.

Good thing it wasn't a virus, I haven't run a virus scanner since I migrated to Win2000 and my old McAffee virus scan didn't work.

 

[Homer]

Very good. I never thought of spyware, or recommending AdAware, which I use regularly.