I was asking about index.dat on XP yesterday. I want to read the information - URLs and so on that are stored there. I just tried downloading Spider 1.16, and ran it on my Laptop. I'd used a version before on W98 to good effect, but it didn't seem to bring up any meaningful info in XP. Certainly no sign of any recognisable URLs. I wonder if I need to tweak something before it'll work properly please? I've searched through a few other threads, and there seems to be mixed opinion as to whether or not Spider 1.16 works on XP or not. Thanks in advance, AJB

There are several free utilities that will read index.dat; Here is one: index.dat viewer sLLs

This is the freeware tools to view index.dat @WinSpy or Index.dat Suite

AJB: As I mentioned yesterday, I've used Spider 1.16 to good effect on XP machines. Never had it fail. To work properly, you must first set the preferences--fourth button from the upper left. Then click on the Start Search button (looks like a tiny magnifying glass). After a moment you'll be able to see all the index.dat files. To clean the files, click the Cleanup button (looks like a small ambulance). It will ask you to confirm your original preferences. Click Accept. Solarian

To continue on from Solarian, put a tick in Complete Hard Drives, this will make Spider search the whole drive and not the just the Windows folder. Purgamentum initium, exitus purgamentum

Thanks for the replies. This is strange, because I was doing what you suggested with Spider 1.16 and it produces a text file in Notepad, but there are no URLs shown. Did the preferences thing, and the hard drive. Have just used the index.dat viewer that LL recommended, and there are a tonne of URLs that have come up, so I don't know why Spider isn't working. One thing that was strange about the viewer was that there were some odd omissions. For example, there were no URLs found for the whole of October, except the 31st, but I know that this is completely wrong. Any thoughts?? Either way, the viewer has confirmed that NAUGHTY Microsoft have been recording a lot of what I've been doing online. Would still like to get Spider working too though! Thanks, AJB.