How do you find out what application is generating a plist file in your preference folder?

Question

I have had two similar warnings come up in Drive Genius 3, a program that I use to manage my drives.  The warnings occur during a daily verification of preferences on my main drive, a 256GB SSD. 
They state:
"The preference file at '/Users/me/Library/Preferences/com.analogsolutions.Football.plist' may be corrupted."
"The preference file at '/Users/me/Library/Preferences/org.machinedevelop.National.plist' may be corrupted."
Per Drive Genius' advisement, "Corrupted files can cause appplication crashes and should be moved to the Trash." I delete the files, however they are regenerated each day. 
Q: How do you figure out what application is generating a preference file?  And is there a way to tell if this is a OS generated preference file? 
I have searched online and cannot find any information about either Analog Solutions or Machine Develop nor am I able to discern what these particular .plist files are for... 
Q: Are these two .plist files truly potentially harmful?
Thanks for the Help!
iMac
model iMac12,2
3.4 GHz Intel Core i7
8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Answer 1

Hi Everyone, sorry for the late response.  I have been monitoring my Preferences Folder; every moment I am on my computer trying to catch what application/process generates these files.  I was hoping to try your suggestions, but oddly enough the offensive .plist files have not returned since the last time I deleted them about a week ago.... strange...
In any case, I have responded to some of your suggestions and questions that I have information on:
X423424X wrote: Ok, can you double click the .plist file?  If so it should attempt to launch the Property List Editor (in your Utilities folder).  That way you can look at stuff in the plist.  Maybe (hopefully) there's something in there that can shed some light on who is creating it.   If Property List Editor cannot open the file (some apps create files that have the .plist extension but don't actually create the proper XML format -- probably what ProSoft was alluding to) then try opening it with a text editor.
The .plist file when opened in text editor contains a string of (what to me seems to be) an arbitrary list of numbers.
Linc Davis wrote: Those files have been given obfuscated names so you won't know what created them. They must contain encrypted registration data for some third-party commercial software that you use.
Yes, seems likely...
Linc Davis wrote: It should be fairly easy to find out what application is creating them, if you really care. Move the files to the Desktop, then log out. Log back in while holding the shift key as you click the "Log In" button. That will prevent your login items from loading, among other things. Open your account preferences and launch the login items one at a time by double-clicking them in the list. After each one, check to see whether the files have been recreated.
Ran through login, one by one, no luck in identifying the application(s). 
X423424X wrote: Another thought, lock the plists on the hope that whatever is using them will "choke" and complain about it (no guarantee that will work but worth a try).
Thanks, the lock idea is the one I will try next if they ever reappear...
X423424X wrote: Also, I don't recall if I asked this but if those plists are deleted while logged in will they be recreated during that same login session.  Or do they only appear after you deleted them and then and then logged out and back in?  Or do you have to reboot to recreate them?
Unfortunately I do not know for certain.  Though from all my login/startup/reboot tests I believe that they are not directly linked to starting up the machine or loging in either.
I'm not really certain why the .plist have not returned.  I haven't uninstalled any programs, though I did run a couple updates for some widgets within the last week; however that was about 3 days after I deleted the last set of .plist files and usually they reappered everyday.  In any case, given that they have not been regenerated I guess my problem is solved per se, at least I am no longer getting that annoying warning everyday.   Still, it's a bit of a mystery  
Thanks again for all the help!