Hi,
I've seen a lot of FUD about this issue. That's a URL cache. There's nothing super secret about it. But if you wish to get rid of it, the process isn't that tough. (It's a lot harder to describe than to do.) And you don't even need the command line.
The reason you can't delete the file from either the command line or from within Windows Explorer is that the file is in use by the current user. The answer is to log on as an alternative (admin) user. You'll have to create one if you don't already have an extra admin account. It's a good thing to have, anyway, in case something happens to your regular account that prevents you from loggin on to it.
Anyway, you log out of the account whose index.dat you wish to remove.
Log into the alternative admin account.
Open Windows Explorer.
Got to the Tools menu, and open the Folder Options dialog.
Click on the View tab of the dialog, and make the following changes in the Advanced settings window:
- Put a check mark beside the item named "Display the contents of system folders".
- Select the "Show hidden files and folders" radio button.
- Uncheck the "Hide extensions for known file types" item.
- Uncheck the item named "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)". Note: you will receive a warning message box. Just click on the OK button.
- Click the Apply button at the bottom of the View tab page, then click the OK button in the same location.
Now use Windows Explorer to navigate to <drive letter>:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5, where <drive letter> is the drive on which Win2K is installed, and <user name> is the name of the user account whose index.dat file you wish to snuff.
Delete that sucker, or even the whole contents and directory structure from "Temporary Internet Files" on down. Next time you start up that account, the structures will be re-created.
After doing this, I'd suggest going back to the Tools | Folder Options dialog and using the Restore Defaults button on the View tab to restore the default Explorer settings -- just to make it a little less likely that you'll run into trouble by accidentally dragging and dropping or deleting the wrong item. Those protections are just as nice for highly experienced people as for neophytes. Anyone can fall victim to the type of oversight that they're designed to prevent.
The only reason I'd delete the index.dat file is if I thought it had become corrupted, or if it was really huge and my browsing habits had changed, meaning there was a lot of useless stuff cached in the file. The corruption issue used to be a problem with previous versions of IE. I haven't seen it in IE5 and up. For those who think this is a spy tool that Microsoft or someone else might use to find out where you've been -- well, there are so many ways to do that that taking this precaution is probably pretty silly. And it's very unlikely that the people spreading the FUD about this, as though it were big news, could protect themselves from most of the other spying methodologies. The truly dangerous types, the government and big business, can probably get access to your ISP's records. And those will tell the whole story. But this will work for keeping someone else who uses the same computer from finding out about your "illicit activities". 😀
Hope this is helpful.
Regards,
Jim
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