Wesley,
Thankyou much for making me NOT feel like an idiot... I dig
quite deep into these computers and consider myself fair to good
with 98 and ME.... This XP is a little new to me.. I have only been
playing around with them a little in the past. There is so much
stuff changed and I must say that I am not really convinced some of
these changes are for the better... This new machine seems to be a
little unstable ie: It sometimes won't remember settings for various
things, I have had some shutdown problems and am trying to just
iron these bugs out one at a time... My old Dell running 98 FE is
as solid as a rock and has been ever since I bought it new in 98.
I guess I got spoiled. I do keep constant maintainance on my
computers and not let stuff go till I have problems..
Thanx again for removing the possibility that I was an idiot..
I know I am not, but... Lacking a bunch of knowledge I would sure
like to have tho.. I have always been a "WHY" and "HOW TO"
type guy...
Burt
Burt;
Contrary to what you may believe, I am not being critical.
And until I understand something, I don't care how *I* look.
)
That said.
The way I understand it,
Windows lies to us and hides things from us.
It also spies on us.
Index.dat files being a good example.
Some Index.dat files are hidden.
There are seven or eight of these bad boys on XP.
Some are hard to delete because they are a 'system' file
and in use. They can also grow to huge size.
Example of what has been on my XP machine.
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM~1\LOCALS~1\History\History.IE5\index.dat
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM~1\LOCALS~1\TEMPOR~1\Content.IE5\index.dat
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM~1\Cookies\index.dat
C:\DOCUME~1\WESLEY~1.VOG\LOCALS~1\TEMPOR~1\Content.IE5\index.dat
C:\DOCUME~1\WESLEY~1.VOG\LOCALS~1\History\History.IE5\index.dat
C:\DOCUME~1\WESLEY~1.VOG\Cookies\index.dat
C:\DOCUME~1\WESLEY~1.VOG\UserData\index.dat
I do not remember where I acquired the following
info, so I can't attribute it to the author(s).
{Sorry to whomever.}
Many sources over a period of time.
============================
[The most important files to be paying attention to are your "index.dat"
files. These are database files that reference your history, cache and
cookies. The first thing you should know is that the index.dat files is that
they don't exist in less you know they do. They second thing you should know
about them is that some will *not* get cleared after deleting your history
and cache.]
------------------------
The Default Structure of the Primary I.E. Folders
Cache Folder:
<base>\temporary internet files\content.ie5 [dir]
<base>\temporary internet files\content.ie5\index.dat
<base>\temporary internet files\content.ie5\..random1.. [dir]
<base>\temporary internet files\content.ie5\..random1..\..cache files..
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
<base>\temporary internet files\content.ie5\..random8.. [dir]
<base>\temporary internet files\content.ie5\..random8..\..cache files..
Cookie Folder:
<base>\cookies [dir]
<base>\cookies\index.dat
<base>\cookies\..cookie files..
History Folder:
<base>\history\history.ie5 [dir]
<base>\history\history.ie5\index.dat
<base>\history\history.ie5\mshist01.. [dir]
<base>\history\history.ie5\mshist01..\index.dat
- - - - - - - -
<base>\history\history.ie5\mshist0n.. [dir]
<base>\history\history.ie5\mshist0n..\index.dat
Notes -
[dir] indicates that the line represents a folder (or directory) name.
The folder levels 'content.ie5' and 'history.ie5' were introduced with IE-5.
They are not used in IE-4.
The Index.dat file within the Cache folder is used to contain URL names,
date and time stamps, and pointers to the actual cache files which are
spread among the four to eight cache sub-folders. These sub-folders are
named with randomly-generated 8-character names.
The Index.dat file within the Cookie folder is used to contain URL names,
date and time stamps, and pointers to the actual Cookie files which are
stored within this same folder.
The Index.dat file within the upper level of the History folder is used to
store 'Visited URL' names, date and time stamps. This is the data used by
I.E. for its AutoComplete function and controlling the highlighting of
imbedded links on the displayed Web pages.
There is one 'mshist...' file for each day of history that you have
instructed I.E. to retain. The daily history is stored in the subordinate
Index.dat files.
For the above, <base> illustrates the base portion of the path to the
folder. This varies widely between the various combinations of Operating
Systems and I.E. versions.
For the simplest systems without user profiles, it could be: "C:\WINDOWS"
For a Win-9x system with profiles, it could be:
"C:\WINDOWS\PROFILES\login-name"
For a Win-2000 [and NT/XP] system, it could be: "C:\DOCUMENTS AND
SETTINGS\login-name\LOCAL SETTINGS"
===========================================
Any more questions? I've got lots of info.
I could not delete a couple of Index.dat files for a long time.
So I studied TIF/Index.dat off and on for quite a while.
I should take the time to put all my TIF/Index.dat notes
together in a readable form. Right now they are the *equivalent*
of a shoebox full of napkins, torn scraps of paper and
matchbooks written on with crayon. ;o)
--
Hope this helps. Let us know.
Wes
In
Burt said:
Wesley,
I did the %TEMP% that you asked and it shows 1 TIF folder with a
subfolder
of IE5 and if you expand that there is nothing in the IE5 folder but the
index.dat file 0 bytes.
There are some other FILES in that search but that is it.
Burt
Burt;
"..why are there TIF folders in all these different places?"
Why is there air?
I don't know why. But I have these:
C:\Documents and Settings\WESLEY P. VOGEL\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files
C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files
C:\WINDOWS\Temp\Temporary Internet Files
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files
C:\DOCUME~1\WESLEY~1.VOG\LOCALS~1\Temporary Internet Files
C:\DOCUME~1\WESLEY~1.VOG\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
==========
Start | Run | Type: %TEMP% | OK
Click Folders to show the tree in the left hand pane.
Look around for some of the 8.3 named TIFs.
--
Hope this helps. Let us know.
Wes
In
