Yes, ~ has a special meaning in Vista (don't know about 7) but try this: in the search box type exactly this:     ~"~~*

Let me know if it worked for you. :-)

Anyway, to be honest, I didn't delete mine. They don't bother me at all. I put all my own content and purchased content in a separate set of folders. The original Vue content just sits there in the original folders and I never see the ~~ files, in practice, because I set the ghost icon in the library.