why is "~$" appearing in front of my excel file names?

Earlier I used dir command to find all the excel files that I have, but for some of the file names (not all) it returns file names that have ~$ in front. For example:

Instead of

File1.xls

File2.xlsx

It returns

~$File1.xls

~$File2.xlsx

etc

Can anyone advice me what is going on here? I would like to get rid of the ~$ in front of the file names or at least know why. Thank you!

Answer 1

[Stephen]

These are temporary files created by Windows Office:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/211632

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-word/is-in-front-of-my-file-name-open-it/54b19aed-4b16-4f96-a4bc-3a8c5476a164?auth=1

[chlor thanks]

Perfect. That clears up my confusion, thank you!~

By the way, I love your profile photo!