Windows: Index.dat, the hidden history file...

1stFreedom

[1stFreedom]

Folks, I bet you didn't know there is a "super secret" collection of files on your computer that contains all the websites you have ever visited.

Even if you think you have cleand out your surfing history, you are wrong. Windows stores the data in index.dat file and leaves the data there EVEN if you clean out the history, temporary internet folders, and cookies.

(If you use Outlook or Office products, that history is also stored -- even deleted messages!.)

While I'm a big advocate of "if you have nothing to hide don't worry" I'm also an advocate of keeping my pc free of my web visits, e-mails, etc.

I deleted my index.dat files and regained a whopping 28mb!!

(Keep in mind that most employers keep track, so some degree, of sites you have visited. Deleting index.dat files will only clean out your PC. Don't think you can visit forbidden sites and get away with it.)

You can't just find or delete these files from Windows easily -- they are hidden. On your favorite search engine do a search on Windows and index.dat. You'll find plenty of utilities that will clean these files out for you.

[Bush2000]

There's an easy way to get rid of these files -- and you don't have to buy a utility to do it. Under XP, close all instances of IE. Boot a command prompt. Bring up the Task Manager (right-click on the task bar and select "Task Manager..."). Select the EXPLORER.EXE process and click "End Task". In the command prompt, "cd C:\Documents and Settings\UserName" folder (substitute your login name for UserName), and "attrib -r -h -s index.dat /s" and then "del index.dat /s". Done. Game over.

[mrsmith]

Here's the list of causes and answers for scandisk:
Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 222469

Screensavers seem to be a common culprit.

[backhoe]

I'd like to move the bookmarks in IE from my original PC to my new one. What file are they in?

The easy way to do that is open IE, hit "file" then "import/export" and follow the tabs & prompts. The cookies are in this section, too.

You can migrate the address book in Outlook Express similarly, but IIRC, you have to actually open the address book to access the tabs & prompts.

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[johnb838]

OMIGOD! Send this thread to EVERYONE YO9U KNOW!~!!! </sarc}

Try deleting that system.ini file. It has a LOT of bad stuff in it. </sarc*2}

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Pagey]

Try deleting that system.ini file. It has a LOT of bad stuff in it.</sarc*2}

Ohhhh, you are baaaaaad,someone is 'bound' to do that.Oh the pain from LMAO!

[RonF]

That selection only allows me to write my favorites out to a file that's readable by Netscape. Also, the problem is that I've preserved the files from the old computer onto my new PC, but I've obliterated the old PC. I need to know the actual name of the file that has the bookmarks in it.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Thank you for that and I'll look deeper into the solutions offered there but I think i'm already doing those correctly. I already have my screen saver set to none and on my neighbor's computer I reset the screen saver time to 60 minutes so it doesn't kick in. Even tried setting the screen saver on his computer to none but I still get the "Restart due to disk write" messages.

I tried Google search for the a solution to my problem but the several pages I went through told me nothing new.

[VOA]

bump

[cibco]

bttt

[HAL9000]

Simply put, browsers cache pages and portions thereof to improve performance by being able to retrieve a local copy of a file and other content rather than having to download repeatedly.

I'm not sure that is an adequate explanation.

Most browser caching systems store the history information temporarily, perhaps for a few hours, but this Microsoft index.dat sounds like a permanent record of every web site ever visited with Internet Explorer.

Why is it necessary to store a list of every web site an IE user visits in a permanent record?

Does it really improve performance on web sites that were visited a year ago?

If not, why do competing browsers take the trouble to manage the cache while Microsoft doesn't?

[No Truce With Kings]

"Here's another case where Microsoft bigots and a variety of stupid, paranoid or idiotic people without a single sense of technology get all in a huff about something totally benign they have no understanding of. Simply put, browsers cache pages and portions thereof to improve performance by being able to retrieve a local copy of a file and other content rather than having to download repeatedly. In order for the browser to ascertain whether the file or other resource has been previously downloaded and to locate where such was previously stored a persistent "index" file is used."

Well. . . no.

I just deleted the index.dat files on my machine. They were over 8 meg in size. Because of the size of the biggest one (7.7M) every time I used IE my system slowed to a crawl. It then continued to crawl until I rebooted.

Deleting index.dat did not erase the cache files. They are still there. It did not degrade the performance of IE, rather it improved it.

I have had my computer since 1999, and have been upgrading it. While not blazing fast it was more than adequate for my purposes. Recently (over the last 6 mo to a year) it has been performing very slowly.

My comp sci major oldest son was convinced that I had a virus. I found that hard to believe for a number of reasons.

OTOH, my computer was behaving very similarly to the way the last computer I had behaved when I had the "logging" feature of Outlook turned on. Whenever I used certain MS products the computer took forever opening files. (Logging on was default for Office '97.) The log file got bigger and bigger and bigger until it was almost impossible to use Office.

Similarly, I had been finding a perfectly good, albeit old, computer almost impossible to use IE on -- until I deleted index.dat. The very size of the file meant that opening it, writing to it, then closing it took a *lot* of time.

This is not paranoia or anti-MS bigotry. Getting rid of that vampire has really improved the performance of my computer. I now plan to purge it every 3 months or so. Not because I am afraid of Big Brother -- because I better use for my time.

[sd-joe]

"I need to know the actual name of the file that has the bookmarks in it."

For Internet Explorer the file is a folder called "Favorites".
For 95/98 it was C:\windows\favorites.
For W2000/XP, the favorites folder is kept separately for each user, and is in:
c:\Documents and Settings\user name\Favorites.

If you copied your entire hard drive to a directory on the new one, you should be able to track down the folder. I am not sure if Netscape saves to the same place. Some of the Old versions of Netscape saved internally and were the devil to get out.

[sd-joe]

Turned on my computer last night and all my personal "Favorites" were gone. Ive got Window's 2000. Any ideas?

If you got logged in as a different user, you would not see your favorites, since W2000 keeps favorites separate for each user.

First try rebooting and then making sure you are logged in as you. If you do not have multiple users set up, requiring individual log in, then that is not it.

At any rate, you can look in the folder c:\Documents and Settings\user name\favorites and see if they are still there.

[DAnconia55]

Index isn't exactly secret.

But has anyone ever verified/or debunked that MS creates a hidden hard drive partition?

[Woodman]

Try Favorites.HTM

[Woodman]

Yes they do, it's called MBR and if you can delete it you haved solved all of the microsoft misteries < /SARCASM > There is information stored outside of the normal partitions and it should not be tampered with.

[Robert A Cook PE]

You may be thinking of the early on (DOS 3, 4, 5, 6) methods of the making a single compressed file that mimic a (visible) hard drive.

Back when a 20 Meg hard drive was "BIG."

[VMI70]

Are there any other "persistent" files that we should know about that can or should be deleted. Windows ME user here.