If you find Protrace files appearing on your desktop on your local machine or terminal server this is due to a database engine called Progress. If you open up the files which usually end in a .random number in notepad you should see a header such as :

PROGRESS stack trace as of Wed Nov 30 16:06:55 2011

From progress site  :

A protrace files (also called stack trace) is a report generated to aid in debugging by showing where exactly an error occurs. The last few stack frames often indicate the origin of the problem or the bug.  A protrace file is generated from a core file. A core file is generated by an error in a Progress executable.  A protrace file is a stack trace from a Progress session that had a serious error. The protrace file is created from a core file being ‘unwound’ by an operating system utility.

They are usually created when a user crashes out of a session or a session ends abnormally, so you can delete these of your own accord or forward them onto your database/program developer!