Vista - "Public Documents" Folder Showing Up With EXE Files Of Unknown Origin

I refer to the Public Documents folder under the Public folder in Vista
Home Premium.

1. I deleted numerous files of EXE type found within that folder. I
recall one of the files name was "Karaoke.exe" and I have no idea how it
got there, except other than the high probability that it was by malicious
means.

2. I normally have Sophos Anti-Virus installed, which was provided by a
previous employer (and still usable until late 2010) and which is
continuously updated with a constant Internet connection (or so I think).
I have very recently used Kaspersky's online Java-based tool to do a
thorough scan of my system. There were no reports of a virus or malicious
software installed, nor of these EXE files being a virus/trojan, which
were probably present at the time I did the scan (but I am not sure).

3. These deleted files showed up again, and I re-deleted them, probably a
couple of days ago. At the time of this posting, they are still absent
(or not seen). However, a hierarchy of folders, starting with the name
"microsoft", and apparently without any files at all in them, were deleted
as well, but have re-appeared. These following hierarchy is seen in these
folders:

Public (folder)
+--- Public Documents (folder, 0 files)
+--- microsoft (folder, 0 files)
+--- IdentityCRL (folder, 0 files)
+--- production (folder, 0 files)

4. Unfortunately, I work at a place on a particular part of the planet
where the individuals here (on this side of the planet, not at the
workplace) are more notorious for creating unproductive software (malware,
viruses) than they are for doing anything productive, related or unrelated
to software production. I routinely find my anti-virus software going
into panic mode whenever I stick a USB drive from a co-worker into my
notebook for to-or-from file transfer. (I may institute a policy where
file transfers take place by other means.)

Question(s):

1. If the EXE files are not placed in the Public Documents folder as a
direct result of mounting a USB drive, could they be placed there through
a network (such as NetBEUI/Microsoft network, or some other network type?)

2. If they are being placed through a network connection, how is my Public
Documents folder not properly configured to allow that? Specifically what
do I set regarding Sharing? Security? tabs to stop this?

"Five By Five" <5x5@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns9C057C2E99ADD5x55x5@xxxxxxI have those - created in January this year. I shouldn't worry about them.

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The empty Microsoft hierarchy exists on my recently reinstalled Vista home
premium SP1 system.
Michael


"Five By Five" <5x5@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns9C057C2E99ADD5x55x5@xxxxxx