internet history files location

G

Guest

hello, I've installed AIDA32 on my pc, it's a tool which gathers information
about pc such as hardware version, drivers, software installed... also it
displays all viewed websites addresses. But I noticed when using it that it
was displaying also some the addresses I manually deleted through Internet
Explorer "history" tool.
I would like to know where from AIDA32 could get that information.
I made a search with WinXP search tool using all appropriate options to make
appear even hidden files and subfolders and ... I didn't find anything

Thanks
 
P

Plato

=?Utf-8?B?aGVhdnl0dWxs?= said:
hello, I've installed AIDA32 on my pc, it's a tool which gathers information
about pc such as hardware version, drivers, software installed... also it
displays all viewed websites addresses. But I noticed when using it that it
was displaying also some the addresses I manually deleted through Internet
Explorer "history" tool.
I would like to know where from AIDA32 could get that information.
Click to expand...
From your harddrive. Assume ANYTHING you do on your pc can be published
Click to expand...
on the Front Page of the Next Days Newspaper.
 
R

Ramesh, MS-MVP

See if completely clearing the Index.dat helps. More info at the following
site:

Delete the History folder and index.dat:
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/delcache.htm

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


hello, I've installed AIDA32 on my pc, it's a tool which gathers information
about pc such as hardware version, drivers, software installed... also it
displays all viewed websites addresses. But I noticed when using it that it
was displaying also some the addresses I manually deleted through Internet
Explorer "history" tool.
I would like to know where from AIDA32 could get that information.
I made a search with WinXP search tool using all appropriate options to make
appear even hidden files and subfolders and ... I didn't find anything

Thanks
 
G

Guest

thanks;
How can I access and read the file "index.dat" in a proper manner, i.e.
without any scheming.
all options are set to show hidden files I didn't find more options;
and why all folders in the "history..." folder are invisible?
the Thumbnails viewer of IrfanView only show them!!!
There shoud an option somewhere to set them as visible!
 
R

Ramesh, MS-MVP

Did you see the "Completely Deleting the Temporary Internet Files and
index.dat " part in that URL I gave you? Explorer shows the namespace view,
and does not show content.ie5 as a folder.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


thanks;
How can I access and read the file "index.dat" in a proper manner, i.e.
without any scheming.
all options are set to show hidden files I didn't find more options;
and why all folders in the "history..." folder are invisible?
the Thumbnails viewer of IrfanView only show them!!!
There shoud an option somewhere to set them as visible!
 
G

Guest

yes i saw everything;
for deleting the temporary files they say just to delete the whole folder
which I did know and seems to be oobvious!

What I WANT TO DELETE ONLY SOME ENTRIES!
I WANT TO KEEP THE REST OF THE DATA

and So there is no way to make the explorer showing all folders in the
"temporary Internet files"??????
there should be a mean obviously.
 
K

kaream

"What I WANT TO DELETE ONLY SOME ENTRIES!
I WANT TO KEEP THE REST OF THE DATA

and So there is no way to make the explorer showing all folders in the
"temporary Internet files"??????"

Yes, there's a very easy way to accomplish exactly what you want.

In Windows Explorer (My Computer) right-click Drive C:, select
Properties, select Disk Cleanup, highlight Temporary Internet Files,
and select View Files. This opens a new window displaying the original
Content.IE5 folder and all of its 8-character randomly-named
subfolders. The files found here can be viewed, copied, moved, run,
etc, *and they may also be individually deleted*. If you return to
your first window and open folders down from Drive C: through Documents
and Settings \ [my logon name] \ Local Settings \ Temporary Internet
Files, what you find there are cookies and other pointers, many of
which have names similar but not identical to the names of the real
files located in the Content.IE5 subfolders. The two open windows do
not duplicate any of each other's display -- the first shows only
cookies and pointers, the second shows only the actual files.
 
R

Ramesh, MS-MVP

Stop posting in caps. Type the full path in Explorer address bar, and you'll
see the content.ie5 contents.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


yes i saw everything;
for deleting the temporary files they say just to delete the whole folder
which I did know and seems to be oobvious!

What I WANT TO DELETE ONLY SOME ENTRIES!
I WANT TO KEEP THE REST OF THE DATA

and So there is no way to make the explorer showing all folders in the
"temporary Internet files"??????
there should be a mean obviously.
 
K

kaream

Yes, this method displays both types of TIF files in a single window,
which may well be more convenient. It also eliminates the sometimes
long wait for Disk Cleanup to do its thing. Thanks for the good
suggestion.

Note that instead of having to type the entire path in the Windows
Explorer (My Computer) address bar, it may be easier to open Folders
view, click down through the folders tree to C: \ Documents and
Settings \ [my logon name] \ Local Settings, and click on Temporary
Internet Files. This will put that much of the path into the address
bar for you automatically, leaving you to type only "content.ie5" at
the end before clicking Go or hitting Enter.

Under the main TIF folder will be the cookies and pointers, while the
real files that had been automatically downloaded from each visited
website will be scattered inside the several 8-character-randomly-named
subfolders under Content.IE5, so you'll need to hunt through these for
specific files of interest. Assuming there are lots of files in each
subfolder, it's frequently helpful to sort them all by date if you have
any idea of when the website was visited, since the filenames assigned
by the website can be quite arbitrary and confusing. Or sometimes
sorting by size or type works better, depending on what you're looking
for.

(I had assumed the shouting in caps represented hair-pulling-out
frustration.)
 
K

kaream

Note that Content.IE5 is usually not the only hidden folder under
Temporary Internet Files; normally there's at least one OLK folder, and
occasionally there may be one or two more. These are special-purpose
folders that may not be of interest, but in any case, unless you
already know their names, they will not display using this My Computer
address bar single-window method. They all do display, however, with
the Disk Cleanup two-window method.
 
G

Guest

thanks;
Writing in caps was on purpose;-)

I deleted the file index.dat and and the history files have gone when i
started windows explorer;
also
AIDA32 is still showing websites entries. So I still don't know where is
located the data source for aida32.
I remind that AIDA32 actually shows all the web addresses I went on and even
after deleting some of them manually.
 
K

kaream

"I deleted the file index.dat and and the history files have gone when
i started windows explorer;"

You had separately posted a question about History at
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...acenter/browse_thread/thread/5de8b1b9e151708b
where I posted this response:
"Deleting History does just that -- it deletes only the records that
Windows wrote for that specific folder, but leaves alone the files
Windows used to generate the History entries."

There are files named Index.dat all over your computer -- a quick
search of my own turns up 29 different such files. You didn't specify
which Index.dat you deleted, but from context I assume it's the one
associated with the History folder you cleaned out, so deleting that
file won't help your problem.

"AIDA32 is still showing websites entries. So I still don't know where
is located the data source for aida32."

I'm not familiar with AIDA32, but if it doesn't display the locations
of the files it finds, it seems the simplest way to find them is
through the Search function of My Computer. Be sure to have it set to
search system files and hidden files. Keep in mind that Search will
*not* be able to look through the "super-hidden" Temporary Internet
Files folders. The previous posts in this thread explain how to access
those folders. Once you think you may have found and deleted all
copies of the files you're trying to get rid of, then run AIDA32 again.

There are much simpler ways of getting rid of *all* of your traces from
website visits, discussed at length elsewhere in these forums, but you
specifically said that you wanted to look at the files, to delete
selectively rather than completely.
 
G

Guest

I never said I deleted the History files and then I deleted the Index.dat!
I said that I deleted the Index.dat and when I lauched win Explorer all
History files have been deleted;

What I didn't say is that when I launched the Win Explorer It took some one
minute I think during which the HD was working hard and when it finally
appeared (the win explorer window) i noticed that there was 4 randomly named
folders left and all the others have been deleted and the left folders were
empty.

That's good we have the same reaction; searching with the search tool of
Windows (including all necessary options of course) first of all is actually
what I did and I'm sure I told that in a previous post last week; I think it
is the post with the same title which I actually mistakenly put in the
"media centre" section;

there's no need to be familiar with AIDA32, just kno that it shows some data
that I can't find the location;

thanks
 
P

Plato

=?Utf-8?B?aGVhdnl0dWxs?= said:
How can I access and read the file "index.dat" in a proper manner, i.e.
without any scheming.
Click to expand...

You cant. It's a propriatary MS file.
 
H

heavytull

So finally nnobody is able to tell me where WinXP is hiding the
Historic websites entries!!!
 
R

R. McCarty

Within the Temporary Internet Files of your User Profile will be a
"Hidden" file, Index.Dat. This is where the histogram of IE visits is
stored. Google around and there are a number of Utilities/Tools
that will purge/remove it - if that's what you're seeking.
 
K

kaream

"Within the Temporary Internet Files of your User Profile will be a
"Hidden" file, Index.Dat. This is where the histogram of IE visits is
stored. Google around and there are a number of Utilities/Tools
that will purge/remove it - if that's what you're seeking."

The OP had said above,
"I deleted the file index.dat and and the history files have gone when
i
started windows explorer;
also
AIDA32 is still showing websites entries. So I still don't know where
is
located the data source for aida32.
I remind that AIDA32 actually shows all the web addresses I went on and
even
after deleting some of them manually."

But apparently it was the History Index.dat that was deleted rather
than the TIF Index.dat. I don't know anything about Prefetch, but it
seems somehow to reconstitute the information from these Index.dat
files, if I'm reading those other posts correctly.
 
K

kaream

Heavytull, here's an interesting website that throws a lot of light on
your problem. It's pretty spooky. The discussion is dated 2001, but
it is probably still relevant regardless of the Windows version used:

http://www.****microsoft.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml
 

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