content.IE5 folders

[Jeff]

I'm on XP Home using IE6. Yet when searching for index.dat I discovered a
number existing within "Content.IE5" folders.

They are located deep within Documents and Settings\...\Local
settings\Temporary Internet Files and have recently modified dates even
though I am using IE 6. What is disturbing is that Disk Cleanup does not
empty those folders even though Temp Internet Files is selected.

Can I delete their contents which in some cases contain more than just
index.dat files?

Thanks.

 

[Incognitus]

I'm on XP Home using IE6. Yet when searching for index.dat I discovered a
number existing within "Content.IE5" folders.

They are located deep within Documents and Settings\...\Local
settings\Temporary Internet Files and have recently modified dates even
though I am using IE 6. What is disturbing is that Disk Cleanup does not
empty those folders even though Temp Internet Files is selected.

Can I delete their contents which in some cases contain more than just
index.dat files?

Thanks.

The Outlook Express that you use uses that folder to cache the messages you
read, mail and news, so it would be best to close OE and use Internet
Options | delete files and click the offline content button.

 

[Incognitus]

The Outlook Express that you use uses that folder to cache the messages
you read, mail and news, so it would be best to close OE and use Internet
Options | delete files and click the offline content button.

This is probably more info than you need, but I'll give it anyway as you may
find it useful.

To make things easier I first put a shortcut to Notepad in the Send To
folder.

I typed the full path in quotes to Content.IE5 in Start | Run, example:

"C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\content.ie5"

From there one can investigate, especially the paranoid, LOL. I suggest
doing so offline so there's less chance of corruption.

If you close OE and use Internet Options to delete files plus offline
content so that you can start fresh. Then open the Content.IE5 using Start |
Run, all you should see is index.dat, which can be large but you can then
right click index.dat file and send to Notepad to see that there isn't
anything useful.

Now, close Explorer that you're viewing Content.IE5 with, open OE, read this
one message, without changing to another message click Start | Run and click
the path to content.ie5, you should see a yellow folder with a random name,
double click the folder, you should see a [1] 0kb and a wbkxxx.tmp, right
click the .tmp file and send to Notepad and you'll see the message you're
reading in OE. Close Notepad and Explorer, read over 100 messages, now use
Start | Run to open Content.IE5, double click the random named folder and
you should now see [1] through [99] and now those will start using caxxxx,
also there will be 100 wbkxxx.tmp files, 1 for each message you just read
with a time stamp of when you read them, works the same with mail.

When you close OE all files will revert to 0kb, but the count will show up
in the properties of the TIF and will disappear when clearing the TIF via
Internet Options, which will remove the data from index.dat but will leave
the index.dat files size the same, just an, for a lack of a better word,
empty holder.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Content.IE5 is a Hidden System folder.

To delete *all* Temporary Internet Files...

1) Start | Run | Type: inetcpl.cpl | OK
Or right click the Internet Explorer icon on your Desktop.
Or: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Internet Options.
Best to do this with all instances of Internet Explorer closed. Especially
if there are a large number of files.
2) On the General Tab, in the middle of the screen, click on Delete Files
3) Check the box Delete all offline content {This cleans >> C:\Documents
and Settings\YourNameHere\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files AND
C:\Documents and Settings\YourNameHere\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.IE5 and \Content.MSO
4) Click on OK and wait for the hourglass icon to stop after it deletes the
temporary internet files
5) You can now click on Delete Cookies and click OK to delete cookies that
websites have placed on your hard drive.

You are correct....

Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) will *not* clean:
C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name Here\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.IE5

Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) *will* clean:
C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name Here\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files

Disk Cleanup is a worthless program.

Try Disk Cleaner, it will Clean:
Temporary Internet Files {Including the contents of the Content.IE5 folder}
Internet Cookies
Internet History
System Temporary Folder
Recent Documents
Run... Dialog List
Find Document List
Find Computer List
URLs in IE Address Bar
URLs in Shell Address Bar
Media Player Recent URLs
WinZip Recent Files
WinZip Extract To Folders
Paint Recent Files
WordPad Recent Files
Cleans Recycle Bin (what else?)
Opera Cache
Opera Cookies
Opera History
Opera Visited links
Opera Download History and Download folder
Firefox Cache
Firefox Cookies
Firefox History

Disk Cleaner
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mp2004/

 

[Rock]

I'm on XP Home using IE6. Yet when searching for index.dat I discovered a
number existing within "Content.IE5" folders.

They are located deep within Documents and Settings\...\Local
settings\Temporary Internet Files and have recently modified dates even
though I am using IE 6. What is disturbing is that Disk Cleanup does not
empty those folders even though Temp Internet Files is selected.

Can I delete their contents which in some cases contain more than just
index.dat files?

Thanks.

When you delete temporary internet files, even off line files, those
index.dat files are not cleared. You can delete them if you want. They
will be recreated the next time, but they will be cleared of the old
content. There are a few programs to help with this. Cleancache v 2.12
is one.

 

[Incognitus]

When you delete temporary internet files, even off line files, those
index.dat files are not cleared. You can delete them if you want. They
will be recreated the next time, but they will be cleared of the old
content. There are a few programs to help with this. Cleancache v 2.12
is one.

The index.dat file will not be cleared, that's true. However any readable
useful info will be cleared.

I just ran a test, upon clearing the TIF via Internet Options and checking
the index.dat file with Notepad there wasn't any readable useful info.

I then went to the MSKB and read three articles, then checked the index.dat
file with Notepad and found a lot of readable usefull info including my
name, some I copied and pasted below:

http://support.microsoft.com/mnpresource/985a83bcS.js ­985a83bcS[1].js
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 2305
Content-Type: application/x-javascript
http://support.microsoft.com/mnpresource/1501ab53S.css 1501ab53S[1].css
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 2845
Content-Type: text/css

http://support.microsoft.com/mnpresource/cfb61fb4S.js ­cfb61fb4S[1].js
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 14542
Content-Type: application/x-javascript


http://support.microsoft.com/mnpresource/cd314e4bS.css cd314e4bS[1].css
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 2544
Content-Type: text/css

http://support.microsoft.com/common/script/gsfx/common.js?1 common[1].js
HTTP/1.1 200 OK

After clearing the TIF via Internet Options the index.dat file no longer
contained this info above, it wasn't clear, but the useful info was gone.
The index.dat file stayed a constant size, 272 KB, throughout.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I'm on XP Home using IE6. Yet when searching for index.dat I discovered a
number existing within "Content.IE5" folders.

They are located deep within Documents and Settings\...\Local
settings\Temporary Internet Files and have recently modified dates even
though I am using IE 6. What is disturbing is that Disk Cleanup does not
empty those folders even though Temp Internet Files is selected.

Can I delete their contents which in some cases contain more than just
index.dat files?

This is part of the basic structure of 'Temporary Internet Files',
which is complex in the interests of handling a great many files
efficiently.

The physical TIF folder contains a Content.iE5, which contains at least
four - and maybe more - folders with cryptic names, which contain the
actual files. The index.dat files serve to record exactly where an
individual file can be found - they can be searched far more efficiently
than the actual directories of the file system

This structure is concealed when looked at in Explorer - that presents
the files as if they were at a single level, with the folder structure
and indexes totally hidden. Because the structure is opened by Windows
Explorer (ie the Desktop) at boot, the indexes are always open and in
use by the system, so you cannot delete them in Windows.

To do so, boot with F8 to 'Safe Mode - Command Prompt only'. There
navigate with CD into your Temporary Internet Files folder, and give
ATTRIB -H -R -S Content.IE5
RMDIR /S /Q Content.IE5
which will remove that entire structure: on Exit and reboot to Normal
mode a new empty one will be made

 

[alan.1]

Jeff wrote:
-
I'm on XP Home using IE6. Yet when searching for index.dat I
discovered a
number existing within "Content.IE5" folders.

They are located deep within Documents and Settings\...\Local
settings\Temporary Internet Files and have recently modified dates
even
though I am using IE 6. What is disturbing is that Disk Cleanup does
not
empty those folders even though Temp Internet Files is selected.

Can I delete their contents which in some cases contain more than just
index.dat files?-

This is part of the basic structure of 'Temporary Internet Files',
which is complex in the interests of handling a great many files
efficiently.

The physical TIF folder contains a Content.iE5, which contains at
least
four - and maybe more - folders with cryptic names, which contain the
actual files. The index.dat files serve to record exactly where an
individual file can be found - they can be searched far more
efficiently
than the actual directories of the file system

This structure is concealed when looked at in Explorer - that presents
the files as if they were at a single level, with the folder structure
and indexes totally hidden. Because the structure is opened by
Windows
Explorer (ie the Desktop) at boot, the indexes are always open and in
use by the system, so you cannot delete them in Windows.

To do so, boot with F8 to 'Safe Mode - Command Prompt only'. There
navigate with CD into your Temporary Internet Files folder, and give
ATTRIB -H -R -S Content.IE5
RMDIR /S /Q Content.IE5
which will remove that entire structu on Exit and reboot to Normal
mode a new empty one will be made

MS ARTICLE Q293402 DOESN'T WORK & POPULAR CLEANCACHE NEEDS .NET
BLOATWARE INSTALLED, NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH COMPREHENSIVE CCLEANER
FREEWARE (HTTP://WWW.CCLEANER.COM). TO ONLY REMOVE THE INDEX.DAT FOR
EVERY USER ON AN XP SYSTEM:

1. Create text file C:\WINDOWS\WINSTOP.CMD which contains the
following:

:begin
if .%1==. goto loop
goto path

:loop
cd /d %AllUsersProfile%\..
for /d %%f in (*.*) do call %SystemRoot%\winstop.cmd %%f
exit

ath
cd %1
del Cookies\index.dat
del "Local Settings\History\index.dat"
del "Local Settings\History\History.IE5\index.dat"
del "Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat"

:end
cd ..
2. Open your Scheduled Tasks control panel & add the new task to run
C:\WINDOWS\WINSTOP.CMD scheduled at logon.

3. Logoff & then logon again to activate the schedule. *
This will erase INDEX.DAT for all users each time you log on, or you
can disable the schedule & use it only as needed. Technically you are
logged on when this happens, although the folks at SpyBot maintain
these need a reboot to safely remove. (For some reason the Scheduled
Task works better than using logon/logoff scripts in Group Policy.)*