Does anyone know how to manually delete Internet Explorers index.dat

I currently delete it from safe mode, but can it be done from within windows?

I know ccleaner can do it after a restart. What does it actually do to allow this to happen?

Try doing it through the command line.

Does anyone know how to manually delete Internet Explorers index.dat

I currently delete it from safe mode, but can it be done from within windows?

I know ccleaner can do it after a restart. What does it actually do to allow this to happen?

http://www.download.com/Privacy-Guard/3000...4-10356336.html

Won't delete the index.dat files but will erase all their content. And no need to reboot or to go in safe mode.

ccleaner probably uses wininit to delete the files on reboot before windows loads and they are subsequently recreated by the OS.

Edited November 19, 200718 yr by eidenk

Does anyone know how to manually delete Internet Explorers index.dat

I currently delete it from safe mode, but can it be done from within windows?

I know ccleaner can do it after a restart. What does it actually do to allow this to happen?

On 98, I simply added commands to the Autoexec.bat.

Eraser deletes them during restart by adding an HKLM..run entry to the registry. Index.dat suite deletes them by adding an entry to HKLM...runonce for run.bat, which contains entries much like the ones I posted earlier. Index.dat suite can read the index.dat files while windows is running but has to restart windows to delete them. It's simpler to get rid of them by using the delete commannd in DOS, by adding the delete entries directly to autoexec.bat or putting them in a separate batch file and running it from autoexec.bat with the "call" command. The advantage to a separate batch file is that it can be temporarily bypassed by unchecking it in msconfig.

I tried editing an index.dat file with notepad+ while windows was running, and was able to delete its contents, but not the file itself. Windows Notepad and Wordpad would not access the file at all, "in use" error message. Apparently, they can be accessed with most non-Microsoft text editors, but editing them while windows is running causes problems. On mine, I got both Windows explorer and internet explorer errors the next time I tried to open a folder.

Rick

Herbalist you are a genius!!!

I used my notepad replacement "TheGun" to open it, select all, delete, save and BINGO!!!