I’ve been puzzled over the mysterious file called “Userimages.bmp” that keep appearing on my Desktop every now and then. The file contains a series of emoticons, perhaps used in some display or some chat apps. Being a paranoid geek, I started launching all my anti-spyware and Windows cleaners. However, none of them reports any form of hidden apps installed.

Still Puzzled, I deleted the file (again). Few hours later I wanted to burn some stuff onto my DVD, so I launched Nero (I’m using version 7) - to my surprise, the file appears on my Desktop again! “Ha! Gotcha!” I thought, thinking Nero is the culprit. So I delete the file, and relaunch Nero - yep! it’s the culprit.

So after tinkering around the bunch of files and registry, I’ve found one key that tells Nero 7 where to place the Userimages.bmp file:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ahead\Nero - Burning ROM\Settings\WorkingDir

To confirm my suspicion, I created a folder called “Temp” in my Nero folder (C:\Program Files\Nero\Nero 7\) and changed the registry key to that location.

Edit the Registry Key (image)

Voila! The Userimages.bmp is now created there. At least its out of my view for the time being. One mystery remains though - what’s that file for and why does Nero keeps creating it? *plays X-Files theme*

Note: If you don’t understand what I’m talking about (especially that HKEY_… thing), you can read about What is MS Windows Registry first. Note that this action means directly tempering with your system. So be careful, you might just make your Windows gone bonkers if you tinker too much! I’m not responsible for that!