can I delete all the contents of the content.ie5 hidden folder and sub folders within. or are they needed bt the OS?. I know the index.dat files will re-appear after I delete them , but they will be empty , and will I have to delete them from safe mode , as I remember from win 98 I wrote a small script file that i put at the start of the autoexec.bat file that deleted them. will I still be able to do this in xppro or is there some other way, to stop me from having to boot into safe mode every time i wanna cleanup. any help would be appreciated thanx in advance Auldy

Google for CCleaner it will clean all the carp out for you...

you can delete the content of your 'temporary internet files' folder with doing harm to the OS. to delete the index file i recommend this: http://support.it-mate.co.uk/?mode=... Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.'

The prog mattie has provided a link to seems to have been written for Win98. I haven't tried it but have some doubts it will work effectively in XP. Are you still using IE5.5 anyway? Would have expected you to at least be using IE6 if not the latest IE7 release. Anyway, in XP there are numerous instances if index.dat files but the main one that contains a particular user's browsing history is in C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Cookies folder where "Username" is the name of the particular user. It cannot be deleted or modified from within windows, even in safemode. Download and instal a program called MoveOnBoot from http://www.gibinsoft.net You can use it to safely delete the index.dat files. As you know, windows immediately rebuilds an empty file. I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.

Some programs store files/folders in Content.IE5, if you delete their files/folders, they won't function properly anymore. index.dat is a different matter and it can be deleted safely, but you can't delete your own user account's index.dat while using your own user account unless you use a program which deletes it before Windows loads. You can delete other user account's index.dat file(s) and you can delete your own from a different user account from within Windows.

Use this. http://www.stevengould.org/software...

index.dat suite works perfectly with ANY version of windows (indl. vista http://www.snapfiles.com/get/indexd... Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.'