Is this malware?

When I ctrl-s saved a simple doc in notepad, some characters like in the picture att. appeared at the end, about 4 in total on two rows. And sometimes I found them when opening txt files (my own) in notepad.

 

I wanna know what it is.

Where should I look for answers?

I don't want to check for malware, if in doubt I run ghost backups and del everything. So I just want to rule everything out.

 

No, I don't think this is malware. I think the font you're using is either incomplete, corrupt, or incapable of displaying certain characters. For example, if you try to open a document in WordPad and the document has some Chinese letters, they may not get displayed as they should and usually end up being displayed as a small empty box, or as the symbol you have attached above. So, try using a different font and see what happens. Alternatively, you can use the info in this article or in this article to revert your fonts back to Windows XP defaults. If you're using Vista, I think the info in the first link can be applied to Vista, but I'm not sure, so if you have Vista and the steps don't work, post and we'll try something else.
:-D
Good luck!

[dlb]

 

File, Save instead of CTRL-S

No.
It only happens sometimes, rarely. And if I save again it does not delete them or add others. If I delete them it does not put them back whatever I do.

It's not a font problem. While updating a txt document often, it sometimes happens, without me changing fonts at all.

It's just like spilling your coffee. It rarely happens and without a visible reason.

 

more.

Ctrl + backspace inserts one of those characters. They are deletable.

But how could the save command insert three of those? It does the trick only rarely. And if the cursor is in the middle of them why does the entire row go one down or one up when I hit enter or backspace?

 

What is this?

This is a BUMP, look only @ the first post & this.

What is this?