FIREFOX + ERASE CACHE

All,

just downloaded firefox. Could anyone tell us how to erase history, cache etc using multiple overwrites, or even better how we could create a plugin in WindowWasher 5.5 to do the trick -

TIA

silla

 

In Firefox goto tools > Options > Privacy and click 'clear all' or just the individual things you want. To overwrite the free space where this information will now be use Eraser (free) or another similar program. Hth.

 

Another way to do it would be directly use Eraser on the cache files.

Where are all the cache files? They are

On Windows XP/2000, the path is usually %AppData%\Phoenix\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.slt\Cache, where xxxxxxxx is a random string of 8 characters. Just browse to C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Phoenix\Profiles\ and the rest should be obvious.

On Windows 95/98/Me, the path is usually C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Phoenix\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.slt\cache

If you are using 0.9 , replace \Phoenix with \Mozilla\Firefox.

I

 

You might also want to erase history.dat and formhistory.dat, cookies.txt etc.

 

Hi,

I have a free Mozilla/Firefox cache cleaner. It's for XP only (for the moment).

http://www.buttuglysoftware.com/CleanMOCache.exe

Thanks,

Bill

 

Wow,

thanks for all the responses guys and will try the new program http://www.buttuglysoftware.com/CleanMOCache.exe

will then feed back.

Many thanks in advance...

silla

 

Bill,

Downloaded the program. Installed and tried my first clean of FF 0.9 items. There is no profile indicated, which means there is nothing to delete. When i select delete selected items nothing happens?

whaddaya rekon?

tia

s13s

 

Probably designed for a older firefox version. In 0.9 they changed the location of the profiles. In fact, they changed it twice between 0.8 and 0.9!

For that matter even spywareblaster is broken now.

 

Silver13Surfer and justhelping,

You are absolutely correct with your statement above. Through DSLR a user reported the problem yesterday and we tracked it down. I have the problem fixed but the way I am currently handling the version checking of Firefox (checking to see if you're running version .8 or .9) works correctly with the full install but not if you're running from the zipped version.

I asked the folks at DSLR if they would mind having radio buttons on the Firefox tab allowing you to select which version of Firefox your are running. They didn't see it as a problem...your thoughts?

I should have the new version up either late tonight or tomorrow evening. I'm very sorry for the oversite on this. I had version .8 still installed with .9 and did not catch the profile move.

Thanks,

Bill

 

Silver13surfer and justhelping,

I have a new version of CleanMOCache at http://www.buttuglysoftware.com/CleanMOCacheNew.exe if you can, please install over your current version, go to the Firefox tab and select the version you are running. See if this corrects the profile issue.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Bill

 

Excellent it works.

For what's it's worth, the radio button is fine. Trying to figure out which version of Firefox is risky, for example did you cover the case of people using 0.8+ migrating to 0.9? Such users would still have their profiles files in <app data>/firefox but linked to mozilla/firefox?

But I was wondering why not future proof your product even further , give us the option of specifying where the profile resides? Isn't that what you allow Opera users?

 

Any plans for W9X version for those of us still stuck in the last century?

 

If you just want to clear the cache and history you can do it in the options panel.

 

Hi ronjor,

Unfortunately not. Both CleanCache and CleanMOCache are written in C#.NET.

Justhelping, what I did with the Opera users is to have them locate the executable. From the executable directory there's an .ini file I can key on to calculate the location of the Opera profile directory.

For Firefox, there is an install_status.log file that contains the version of Firefox installed:

Product Info:
Install mode: Normal
Company name: Mozilla
Product name (external): Mozilla Firefox
Product name (internal): Mozilla Firefox
Uninstall Filename: UninstallFirefox.exe
UserAgent: 0.9. (en)
Alternate search path:

But this does not exist for the zip file users. Also, unfortunately, everyone is not as savvy a user as yourself and if I ask for them to locate their profile directory, they'll have no idea. I'm still pondering this addition but nothing is coming to me to make it easier just yet.

Thanks for the suggestions though, please keep them coming!

Bill

 

If this was meant for me, BigC, I (eventually) found that some time ago. I assume it's a 'simple' file deletion, though, and, hence, recoverable. I'm wondering if there's anything more secure available for Firefox 0.8 on W98SE.

Any ideas?

 

Hi dangitall,

Keep checking back on my web site http://www.buttuglysoftware.com for news on having CleanCache and CleanMOCache working under all Windows OS's. I am currently going through hell with Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 and accessing the Internet through the virtual systems. Once corrected I'll be able to finish the certification. I'm not expecting this to take me more than a couple of weeks at the most if I can straighten out my problem.

Thanks,

Bill

 

Dynamite

 

Thanks, WYBaugh: I'll check back on that.

Dynamite, hmmm? A little drastic, perhaps, but ...

 

Bill,

She works a treat. Running fine.

Just to note, if you have FF 0.9 but accidentaly tick 0.8 then you get a big error message. If you press the cancel button then it allows you back into the program to correct. Prehaps for the unsuspecting user they might assume that this is an unrecoverable error and uninstal.

Keep up the good work.

TIA

s13s

 

Hey s13s,

I'll take care of the exception. Thanks for the headsup on this!

Bill

 

Sure, but that does not securely erase the files. You could follow the instructions above, where I recommended you surf to the files in your profiles and used something like eraser to erase them (a more advanced idea would be to use a startup batch file so it's done every time you start, or a scheduler). The drawback is most people don't know about profiles and even if they did, they don't know which files to delete.

What WYBaugh offers is truly valuable since it does secure erasing in one step (as opposed to pressing clear 4 times) AND it allows you to set it on auto to erase when the browser is closed, so you dont have to remember to do it. Sadly there is no option for firefox to clear your cache on closing for example. No equalavant option to setting session cookies or clearing the download manager on exist also exists for clearing the forms.

I was hoping firefox extensions could offer this , and so far the author of X paranoia has hinted that he would add such a feature, but so far nothing yet.

 

That is one of the reasons I use opera , it has so many more options

 

Funny, one of the reasons why I don't use FIrefox , is because it has so many more options.