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I read a lot about the index.dat file and how it can continue to grow and thus the procedures to clean it out. But, My file never gets larger than 80kb. 4 years now on this computer and it runs fine always but again, my index.dat never gets larger than 80kb (as shown in cookies). Why??
index.dat does grow larger in time, if not cleaned out. I just clean out the internet cookies and history from IE itself. My index.dat file is usually 32 or 64 kb. I would say delete it from IE.
If you want you can delete it into the recycle bin. Then reboot your pc and open up IE to see if any problem arises if not, then it's ok. IE should (in theory) recreate the index.dat file again, either upon bootup (login) or opening IE again.
Hope that helps.
Kevin.
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The index.dat file is a normal part of IE, and causes no problems. The reason for all the fuss about it is that it contains info on all sites visited, and some with guilty concience want to remove the evidence.
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Garry- Right click on the TIF in Windows Explorer and click properties to see the size of it.
Kevin- You cannot delete the index.dat(TIF) from windows. It has to be deleted from DOS. You can delete CONTENT IE5(or6) from windows and it will do the same thing.
Al-The reason I deltete index.dat is it can build to a huge size and this eats up resources.
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Here is some more on the subject of index.dat:
This works in IE5.5 and IE6.0.
Just found out something. Without using Spider or Windows Washer you don't have to go to DOS to delete index.dat. Just go to C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5(or .IE6) and delete the Content.IE folder. It will recreate itself on the next bootup.
First go to DOS and at the prompt type in the following commands:
CD\WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1\CONTENT.IE5(or.IE6)
EDIT /75 INDEX.DATYou will be brought to a blue screen with a bunch of binary.
Press and hold the [Page Down] button until you start seeing lists of URLs. These are the sites you have visited. When your done looking go to File>Exit. If you don't have mouse support in DOS then use the [ALT] and arrow keys.
Now delete the Content.IE folder and repeat the above and look.
PS-To delete this out of IE6.0 you have to reboot and then you can delete it from Recycle Bin after the new Content.IE folder has been recreated.
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I went to: C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\ and found no folder called 'Content.IE5'. It must be there as I only have 3 cookie files showing (1kb/each) of which I leave always. Right clicking on TIF and properties shows 3 files and one folder which I assume is the Content folder. The size total is 1.31Mb. If I go to Folder Options/View/ there is a check under 'show all files'. Of course this is a folder but where do I go to show it? Then, is this the same as the index.dat file (80Kb) that I have in cookies or is this a whole different thing. I clean out Windows/TIF as well as cookies throughout the day. Also Internet Options/Temp. Internet regularly as well as some of those other options in Int. Options.
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Garry-Go to this link and it will explain everything you want to know about index.dat files and more. Just substitute that famous four letter word for the x's. I'm not kidding. This guy must really hate MS.
http://www.xxxxmicrosoft.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml
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For the record i delete my index.dat file every day and i have no conscience what so ever ;).
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To get rid of index.dat files, cookies and so on you just can type in the following in the autoexec.bat file.
Those are phenix files : they recreate themselves.(autoexec.dat runs on startup, ie on DOS...)
deltree /y C:\windows\tempor~1 >nul
deltree /y C:\windows\cookies >nulSo each time you reboot you clean your files.
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From within IE, go to Tools, Internet Options, Temporary Internet Files, Settings button, Click on View files and note where your TIF folder is stored.
Then go to Start, Find, Files or Folders and navigate to the noted location.
The index.dat located in that folder is the one that everyone makes a fuss about.Bryan
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This really gets into it:
Just figured out why deleting IE.Content folder gets rid of index.dat. Index.dat is in there but MS has it where you cannot see it. Read the following from the Riddler's site called xxxxmicrosoft.com. I guess you can figure out what goes in the place of the x's.
"Quote"
How does Microsoft make these folders/files invisible to DOS?The only thing Microsoft had to do to make the folders/files invisible to a directory listing is to set them +s[ystem]. That's it. As soon as the dir/s command hits a system folder, it renders the command useless (unlike normal folders.) A more detailed explanation is given in Section 6.
So how does Microsoft make these folders/files invisible to Windows Explorer?
The "desktop.ini" is a standard text file that can be added to any folder to customize certain aspects of the folder's behavior. In these cases, Microsoft utilized the desktop.ini file to make these files invisible. Invisible to Windows Explorer and even to the "Find: Files or Folders" utility (so you wouldn't be able to perform searches in these folders!) All that Microsoft had to do was create a desktop.ini file with certain CLSID tags and the folders would disappear like magic.
To show you exactly what's going on:
Found in the c:\windows\temporary internet files\desktop.ini and the c:\windows\temporary internet files\content.ie5\desktop.ini is this text:
[.ShellClassInfo]
UICLSID={7BD29E00-76C1-11CF-9DD0-00A0C9034933}Found in the c:\windows\history\desktop.ini and the c:\windows\history\history.ie5\desktop.ini is this text:
[.ShellClassInfo]
UICLSID={7BD29E00-76C1-11CF-9DD0-00A0C9034933}
CLSID={FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000}The UICLSID line cloaks the folder in Windows Explorer. The CLSID line disables the "Find" utility from searching through the folder. (Additionally, it gives a folder the appearance of the "History" folder.)To see for yourself, you can simply erase the desktop.ini files. You'll see that it will instantly give Windows Explorer proper viewing functionality again, and the "Find" utility proper searching capabilities again. Problem solved right? Actually, no. As it turns out, the desktop.ini files get reconstructed every single time you restart your computer. Nice one, Slick.
Luckily there is a loophole which will keep Windows from hiding these folders. You can manually edit the desktop.ini's and remove everything except for the "[.ShellClassInfo]" line. This will trick windows into thinking they have still covered their tracks, and wininet won't think to reconstruct them.
I can't stress how ridiculous it is that Windows actually makes sure the files are hidden on every single boot. No other files or folders get this kind of special treatment. So what's the agenda here?
"Unquote"
==============================================
I did the removal of the line in both desktop.ini to see if I could delete the index.dat file from the IE.Content folder but it would not let me. You can still delete the whole folder but not just the index.dat.
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