My Problem with Nuisance Temp Files

Hi Good Folk! So glad you're still here ))

I see this has been addressed very recently but I've a new twist:

Yesterday--while removing a puzzle file I'd erroneously saved in the Windows
folder (I'd made it from a desktop wallpaper '-)--I found three hundred and
forty eight empty "fff {...}.tmp" files in there. I was shocked!

I vaguely remembered reading something about them before so did some
Googling and visited MS for the poop about Word 2000 being their creator and
details for putting an end to the glitch. But, but, but . . . and here's
the twist . . . I don't have Word 2000 installed--in fact, I've never had
it! I have Word 97 which I installed last January 17 on the heels of a new
hard drive--and a computer-wide search for the culprit Mdm.exe file comes up
empty! There's no entry for it in msconfig and no entry in the registry
under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr ent
Version\RunServices to delete. I've disabled 97's Find Fast (through the
Control Panel); disabled script debugging in IE; disabled PCHealth by way of
msconfig (and also disabled its scheduled task); and I deleted all the
hundreds of fff tmps--but each boot still gets me two fresh ones :-(

I did notice, however, that the first instance of an fff tmp was dated
April 19th--the day after I installed an updated version (6.0.1.1091) of the
Acrobat Reader (I keep records '-). Is it possible that AcroRd32 is
creating the fff files???

Insights, ideas much appreciated :-)

carol