Do you clean your index.dat file in IE?

I use Crazy Browser,which runs on the IE engine.I usually clean my index.dat file daily.I run Supercleaner(shareware $29.99 lifetime license)and it does that on startup.I clean the garbage files it finds every month or so.I have Aluria's Spyware Eliminator and the interesting thing about that program is I can view dat.file with it and delete it.Supercleaner is from http://www.southbaypc.com

 

And I think what's become clear is that the more up to date .dat cleaners can in fact do the job safely, and that programs like Spider, which were designed for a completely different context do not perform well on XP systems for which they were never designed in the first place. The fact that they seemed to run without any negative consequences only disguised what was going on behind the scenes. And the fact of the matter is, if people have alternatives to System Information, and don't really care that Spider knocks it out, I would venture to say that Spider STILL could be used; just as long as you know the side effects. But with a product like IE Clean that FanJ talked about, it would seem to make more sense to go with the more up to date product.

sk

 

In my newbie eyes, it's not really necessary to pay for any security product except for anti-virus and anti-trojans.

Privacy tracks cleaning is in my view a secondary priority product. Nice to have , but not necessary.

 

Everyone seems to have their own special and preferred way of handling index.dat.

Since we always fall short on explaining it all because there is still out there people who use everything from Win95 to WinXP and it is a fact you can not do it the same for each of these OS...I think the page and links Milly has put together is a very good synopsis of the issues and what methods you might try until you...yourself...the user are satisfied...

Here is an excerpt:

"Or these programs which focus on 'features'. But you'll need to check how thoroughly they are deleting the 'old' URLs and/or index.dats, if that is important to you. Some of them just use IE's own mechanism to do it, and that will leave the index.dats to grow and grow forever, and often leave 'orphan' files of which IE has lost track"


This is the link.
http://www.imilly.com/winclean.htm



Enjoy It has something for everyone !

 

Here is a site with a little blurb about a solution for Index.dat files dilemma with a free receipt for wind95/98/ME
and wind2000/XP

 

LOL 4got to put this in

http://www.markusjansson.net/eienbid.html#netbios

robert

 

Hi

I do clean up the index.dat file using CleanUp
http://www.freebies4ya.com/members/cleanup.asp
It makes a nice toilet flush noise

*Ari*

 

LOL. I hate when that happens too. Especially in emails. People get it and are like: "WTF?", especially if I don't catch it until later on. If I catch it and send the fix right away and they see two consecutive sk emails in their in-box they figure: "There he goes again; he either forgot the link, or the image, or something".

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot...
thanks for the link. I really like Markus's stuff.

 

I use spider for cleaning my index.dat file. I also tried a program named ilSystem wiper to clean my index.dat file among other things. ilSytem wiper worked fine.

 

What OS?

 

SK I use WIn98 but both brograms worked well with my wifes work computer which is running win2k.

Ari I tried cleanup and it don't work as good as spider does. but I did like the fact that it cleans out favorites and games. The flush sound is rather funny at first.

 

Thanks, n.a.g. Just for my own edification could you possibly check on the W2K machine and see if it's possible to access "System Information"? I've switched from XP to W2K and if Spider works on a W2K system I'd load it again. Thanks.
sk

 

I'll check for you.

 

Thanks. I appreciate it.
sk

 

Just to add, I'm using MRU-Blaster to clean my index.dat file now (with secure file deletion, no less).

Best regards,

-Javacool

 

MRU-Blaster. Hmmmm. I think I've heard of that. It's supposed to be really good. I probably should go check it out. Thanks, Javacool guy.

 

I sure didn't know MRU-Blaster deleted the Index.DAT file either.
I am going to give it a try also.
Javacool builds nice stuff

Thanks

Javacool

 

Thanks for the compliment!

The functionality was just included as part of the new plug-ins (in the version 1.5 of MRU-Blaster released today). If you enable the IE Temporary Internet File Cleaner plug-in, it will delete that index.dat file on reboot after you clean in MRU-Blaster (the separate file that enables this deletion deletes the index.dat file with a 2-pass wipe). The Cookie-Blaster plug-in will also set-up deletion of the cookies folder index.dat file on reboot. And you can easily run both plug-ins and both index.dat files will be wiped.

Of course, MRU-Blaster still functions perfectly if you decide not to use either of the plug-ins (and they are disabled by default).

Best regards,

-Javacool

 

Cool thankz Javacool

 

Javacool gave me the opportunity to help test the new plug-ins and I have to say - very impressive. We put it to the test, through the wringer so-to-speak with various file recovery methods and the new MRU-Blaster plugins do a superb job --- it does exactly what it claims to do.

Excellent software!

John
Luv2BSecure

 

Thanks for the update, John. It sounds really exciting!

sk

 

Yep, I got it yesterday and it sure works. NOW, I can do all the particular file cleaning I needed with MRUBlaster/Plug-Ins without having to open my other cleaner to delete the Index.dat file. Great.
Cheers.

 

Okay, Javacool. This is jogging my memory back maybe a little too far, but if I'm not mistaken, I seem to recall reading - either on the Spider site or the Eraser site - that MS was so insidious with its .dat files that even after you clear the index.dat files for cookies, history, TIF, there is STILL the matter of the system.dat, and user.dat files, that, again, if I'm not mistaken, are NOT as amenable to cleaning, and which still contain tons of redundant information. And that with those files, if you delete them they reappear from a cache .cab file possibly, or something to that effect.

As I said, I'm kind of fuzzy on this because it's been years since I've read it, but at the same time some parts of that really stick out, because I remember thinking at the time: "Man, this is pretty evil stuff by design here". So since the focus here is privacy I just wanted to make sure there weren't any false senses of privacy/security floating around, given the formidable obstacles MS placed in everyone's way. And I figured if anyone would know the inside/out scoop, it would be you.

sk

 

Those files actually store your registry and other computer hardware related information - but there is an issue with them.

When you delete an item in the registry, the files that store the registry on disk actually don't get smaller in Windows 9x - where data used to be is simply overwritten with garbage. There's a process called "compacting your registry" which can be used to re-build clean and smaller registry files, but it is NOT recommended unless the user has manually edited the registry before.

If you clean the index.dat files, you get rid of one of the most dangerous information-stores in Windows. While the system.dat and user.dat files *may* store some additional information, they DO store registry and computer hardware information (some versions of Windows use even more files than just the two you mentioned). I recommend that no one goes messing with those files (in fact on Windows NT, 2000, and XP, the system does not allow you to directly manipulate those files).

I'm going to take a closer look at them on a Windows ME system, but it may take a while to comb through all the data.

Best regards,

-Javacool

 

To Javacool:

What's bubbling up as I read what you wrote is that absolutely, the system and user .dat files have a bunch of registry stuff. But think about that for a second: The REGISTRY STUFF they have IS a lot of the MRU types of things. The registry is loaded with stuff like that. And supposedly, when you bust open the system and user data files, it ALL comes gushing out like a split coconut.

And again, it depends what level of security/privacy you're talking about. If you're talking about wiping drives 41 times so data can't be recovered, for example, then something sitting there as ripe as a system or user data file suddenly becomes quite a different matter, especially if one is thinking that one's privacy has already been secured. What I'm recalling now is an account of someone's utter amazement that stuff from YEARS ago had suddenly come back to life via the good old system and user files. Almost like my reaction the first time I ran Directory Snoop; I just looked at the 5,000 or so red lettered smoking gun trail of every site, pic, mpg, vid, you name it, that I had ever surfed on that computer - my work laptop computer, btw - and my jaw just dropped open. Especially since we'd just gotten the memo about what would happen if we were caught using our work laptops for personal use. It would have been pretty hard to justify a lot of those references working for a local department of aging, don't ya think? Yeah. Me too.


I'm sure when you get a chance to take a peek, you'll let us know. Thanks, Javacool. Hope this was helpful.

sk