What is a .tst file?

Question

Level 1

8 points

What is a .tst file?

A file (icon) has appeared on my Mac Book Pro desktop. The filename is ~test~bk.tst. This file icon appeared while I was using safari online. It is FIXED in location and cannot be dragged to any new location. If I R click on this file, none of the choices have any effect except "move to trash" which, when clicked just opens a dialog with a finder logo that says, "This item cannot be moved to trash because it cannot be deleted." It cannot be opened and clicking "Info" produces no result. Even though the icon appears on the desktop, it does NOT appear in finder along with the other items that are on the desktop. What is this file? How can I get rid of it?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jan 9, 2012 6:02 PM

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Answer 1

fane_j

Level 4

3,704 points

Jan 9, 2012 9:39 PM in response to currycogirl

currycogirl wrote:

it suddenly appeared while I was surfing online.

The problem is that, unless someone happens to have come across a very similar file before, there's very little we can use. The filename extension "tst" is not really informative. It could be (it obviously isn't) a file created by ExamView; or it could be created by Pearson TestGen; or by MCC TestPoint; or it could be a printer test file. There's no central repository of what name extensions mean, just various databases which are more or less accurate.

Just before that I had done some email in Outlook

Are you positive that the file name is "~test~bk.tst" and not "~test~bk.pst"? The name extension ".pst" may be used by Microsoft Outlook.

cannot be dragged to any new location

The tilde and "bk" in the name indicate that it might be a backup file. That would account for it.

How can I get rid of it?

That shouldn't be too difficult. But we don't want to delete it if it is used by something like Outlook. I suggest just restarting the computer. If it's still on the Desktop and you still can't delete it, we'll take it from there.

Should I be worried about some kind of mal-ware involved here??

That's always a possibility, but I'd say a remote one.

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Answer 2

kurt188

Level 4

1,340 points

Jan 9, 2012 7:05 PM in response to currycogirl

Did you take a test recently from ExamView, or create one? That's what this file is for. It seems the file is locked on your system, but you can unlock it and delete it.

Before we try to do that, make sure you don't need this file for anything.

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Answer 3

currycogirl Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 9, 2012 8:28 PM in response to kurt188

Never heard of "ExamView." Haven't taken a "test" in decades....I'm a retired Sr. citizen!! My husband and I both use this computer, but he say the same....and it suddenly appeared while I was surfing online. Just before that I had done some email in Outlook, but I looked through what came in today and nothing is suspect. How the heck could a file like this have gotten onto my computer? Should I be worried about some kind of mal-ware involved here??

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Answer 4

WZZZ

Level 6

13,238 points

Jan 9, 2012 9:43 PM in response to currycogirl

When I search, these are the ony hits I'm getting for ~test~bk.tst

http://lists.samba.org/archive/samba/2003-December/077383.html

http://forum.soft32.com/linux/Quicken-backup-8a-FreeBSD-ftopict369688.html

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Answer 5

currycogirl Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 9, 2012 10:41 PM in response to fane_j

Well, I'll give fane_j a "correct" because the suggestion to reboot did the trick....it's gone. But I think WZZZ is hot onto something too, because my husband DID use Quicken this afternoon to pay bills and he backed it up afterward. But we're running Quicken in a Parallels VM, and backing up to a network drive.....but wait....he says he backed up to a desktop file on the Mac also, which he then plunked into Dropbox. But he says he didn't see this strange file that was bothering me, until I pointed it out to him later. But it probably iS related to the Quicken backup to a desktop file (which has been moved on to Dropbox, where it sits now). I followed those links, and it sounds like this file is an itermediate step in a Quicken backup. But we've been running Quicken this way for just over a year and never seen such a file before! Oh well, live and learn!

My husband and I are pretty experienced Windows users from years in our jobs, but we're still a bit new to the Mac at just over a year now and still have things that mystify us! You probably guessed that's why we are running Parallels on our Mac: just couldn't part with Windows Quicken which we've depended on for over 15 years.

Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I'm so impressed with this user community and how FAST if gets you some usable suggestions!

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Answer 6

fane_j

Level 4

3,704 points

Jan 11, 2012 12:24 AM in response to currycogirl

currycogirl wrote:

the suggestion to reboot did the trick....it's gone.

When the system shuts down, it tells all open apps to pick up their toys and go home. Well-behaved apps (Quicken in this instance -- learn a new thing every day), before quitting, release and delete temp files and the like. That's one of the many reasons a restart, as WZZZ says, cures any numbers of ills, so it's one of things I try first when I'm stuck.

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Answer 7

WZZZ

Level 6

13,238 points

Jan 10, 2012 4:42 AM in response to currycogirl

You're welcome. Thought it might have something to do with Quicken. Restarting often cures any number of ills.

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