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Be carefull before deleting these files.

What is an index.dat file?

There are three index.dat files residing in the following locations:

Cookies\index.dat

History\History.IE5\index.dat

Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat

index.dat files keep basically a copy of whatever there is in that folder and they continue keeping those records even after you have deleted the contents of those folders.

Why can't I find index.dat files on my hard disk?

Because index.dat files are hidden by default. However if you want to make the index.dat files visible, you can do that in Windows explorer folder options.

Can I delete index.dat files?

You can not delete index.dat files as long as Windows is running. That's why vendor's program needs to restart your PC in order to delete index.dat files.

Although as soon as Windows starts, new clean index.dat files will be created, ready to record your steps.

Does deleting index.dat files affect my PC in any way?

Deleting index.dat files is quite safe and besides freeing up some disk space has no other effects.

Is it possible to delete Cookies index.dat but keep other index.dat files?

No, because the contents of index.dat files are in close relationship with each other. Thus generally to delete the contents of any index.dat file, you have to delete all index.dat files at the same time.

How can I know that an index.dat file is clean?

The size of a clean Cookies index.dat file is 16 KB.

The size of a clean History index.dat file is also 16 KB.

When clean the size of Temporary Internet Files (Cache) index.dat file is 32 KB.