Can not delete files!!

Hi everyone, about two days ago, my computer was on and I was away. I had left windows messenger on. But when I came back, I saw that somehow computer had imed everyone who was on my buddylist and try to send this file that I didn't even know it existed on my computer.

Finally I traced it and found where it was located. I tried deleting it but didn't work. The only thing I can do is that I can move it around from one folder to another and rename it. I am pretty sure it has to be a stupid virus but I guess since I changed the name of the file, even if it's called the original name doesn't exist so it won't recognize it. However, I tried looking at the properties and everything seems normal. But again, when I try to delete it, it says "Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currenty in use."

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advanced.

Lets see.. suggestions.. ::

-Did you leave an 'open connect' with someone on your IM list? It's only a guess, but open connections can allow access into your pc -- I could be wrong, but if I'm not...?
-Tried shutting down and restarting your pc then going in?
-Tried using the "Add/Remove" program in Control Panel? Tho, I don't really believe that will work for a file :/
-Is it a Read-Only? Take this off and try deleting it...?
-Try deleting it from DOS?

Good luck.. never had this happen to me, I'd be interested in the end result.

is it called pic(1)(2)(3)?.EXE?
if so its a harmless(or so i think), thta is run everytime windows starts up so go into the process killer (ie CTRL+ALT+DEL) and kill the program msgspread ( or sumthin like that) and then delete it that should get rid of the virus

if it is pic123 then here is how to remove it...

http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~lynnh/AVA1/htmls/new.html

its on the bottom of the page.

Thank you so much webmarkart, whackaxe, and Revelle. All your comments have been really really helpful.

The file was read-only and I did change it and tried deleting it but didn't work. I tried changing attributes from dos and tried deleting it from there but no result.

And I am sorry, I should have mentioned earlier, it was a patch for a software that I had downloaded from a p2p application ( i m sure everyone knows which one it would be) and I don't use it at all but I was introuduced by someone and I tried it out for the first time for experiment purpose. But I guess I learned my lesson and have decided not to use it.

So I guess when I was applying the patch, it must have created that .exe file that had a mouse icon on it. and there were quite a few files. I did check earlier and made sure that they weren't in startup. And if they were then it may be the problem why I couldn't delete them but they weren't. I did check in Add-remove and thought it probably was a small application and I could get rid off from there. But nope, it wasn't there. Since I run a server and my this machine is connected to it, they both are running 24/7. So it never struck to me to turn it off and start it again.

However, that would have been the first thing I should have tried. And with surprise it did work. yet, I still don't understand why I was not able to delete it before I restarted the computer. I guess it must have something to do with memory.

But now my biggest concern is that I hope it didn't damage any of my .dll or system files. Is there anyway to find that out?

Once again, I really appreciate your quick replies and thanks to you all I got to learn something new as well as got rid off my problem. Thanks a lot.

By the way, I do have Norton Antivirus 2002 and I just did the live update couple of days ago. I don't know if having it makes a big difference or not.

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.annoying.worm.html

Read that for more. I'd do another virus update and moan to Nortons as they now about it since august last year so virus checker should have spotted it.

Thank you tommysphone. The link was really helpful.

so it was the worm i suggested. i thought that it had been stamped out ages ago!