I have discovered 8 files in c:/windows that should not be there. The filenames are: 0,1,2,3,4,5,Y, and S; they all have hidden and system attributes turned on; and all are 785,696 kb in length. The only way that I can delete these files is to boot a DOS system, remove the hidden/system attributes, and delete them. This works, but the files reappear as soon as XP boots again. I know, I know...this sounds like a virus, but my ZoneAlarm reports that this system is virus-free. I am, of course, using the latest virus definitions from Zone Labs. Other than taking up a huge amount of space, these appear to be benign and as far as I can tell, do not affect my system's operation, but these files certainly do not belong in my Windows directory and most likely, don't even belong on my system. Has anyone seen anything like this, and if so, was there any fix?

Unhide file extensions as well and tell us what type of file they are. I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.

File extension are already unhidden. The filenames are really 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Y, and S! No extensions! As I mentioned, I can delete them by booting to DOS, but the files are recreated as soon as XP comes up, even in diagnostic mode with all startup and services disabled via msconfig. These files are driving me up the wall!