Safe to Delete These Files?

[ColTom2]

Hi:

I have two files that appear applicable Local Disk (C when I open
Windows Explorer and was wondering if it safe to delete these files.

First is "install.dat" 1 KB in size and the other is "INFCACHE.1" 5 KB in
size.I do not understand why the second file INFCACHE.1 is appearing in this
location as it is normally related to drivers I thought.

Thanks,

ColTom

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

They're so tiny, why would you want to delete them? I wouldn't delete
install.dat because it may be required (probably is) to uninstall whatever
app it belongs to. INFCACHE.1 is usually in the %WINDIR%\inf folder. Do you
have one there?

 

[ColTom2]

Hi Gary:

INFCACHE.1 is in the .inf folder on my Toshiba laptop with Windows Home
SP2; however, on this computer (Sony Desktop) with MCE2005 it does not show
up in the inf folder.

It shows up in the Windows\Drivers folder applicable each specifically
named driver and also like I said C:\.

Thanks,

ColTom

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

All I can say is that *I* would leave it alone. It certainly isn't doing any
harm where it is, and even if you renamed it and waited to see what
happened, you might have to wait a very long time before the need for it
arose. For all you know, it was moved on purpose and *something* will expect
to find it there. What I *might* do is copy it to the INF folder.

 

[Guest]

My advice is definitely leave it alone. I used to delete stuff that I wass
unsure of and it messed up my computer bigtime. Do not delete something
especially having to do with Windows unless you know exactly what is is and
what is does and you know what what you are doing. There are are far better
ways to free up space like a defragmentation or deleting or a disk cleanup.
Run disk cleanup once a week and defrag once a month. In XP go to Start,
accesories, system tools, disk cleanup. For defrag same thing. This will
make the computer run a bit quicker.
Best Regards,
Raymond

 

[Guest]

Good advice. If it's not broken, don't fix it.....

MD

 

[Juan B. Rivera]

Dear ColTom:

It is not my intention to cause alarm, but even if they were virus-infected
files, You should not delete them on ypur own. If your antivirus or
antispyware utilities can recognize them as malware, they would delete them
safely.