frogman Posted March 29, 2010 Share Posted March 29, 2010 Is it safe to delete the folders that appear in C:\WINDOWS\UserData on Windows 98 S.E?I thought perhaps that if they were put to the bin that when they system reloaded it would start them again, but no, any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Multibooter Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 \WINDOWS\UserData\ contains an index.dat file, so you are trying to interfere with stuff put there by Microsoft for some purpose. Could it have something to do with US agencies?"Remember earlier we talked briefly about a computer forensics expert being able to retrieve data regarding everywhere a computer has been on the Internet? The key to this is the index.dat files. These files are mini-databases cataloging the contents of directories relating to your Internet behavior. Your search queries, cookies, web history and other peculiar items are recorded in these files. You can easily delete the contents of Internet Explorer directories (history, cookies, temporary files), but you cannot easily delete the index.dat files that record their contents. Interestingly enough, it seems that Microsoft does not want you to play with these index files, so if you attempt to access or display them, access will be denied"http://www.5starsupport.com/tutorial/windows-data-security.htmMaybe this helps:http://support.it-mate.co.uk/?mode=Products&p=index.datsuite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triger49 Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 It is another one of the plethora of waysto monitor your activities. Mine, for instance,contains links to the last 2 videos I watched onCNN's website.Things like Crap Cleaner do a good job of gettingmost of them. It's always at the top of the listat filehippo dot comhttp://www.filehippo.com/To assuage any paranoia, try the last freewareversion of BCWipe, it not only wipes the datfiles, but finds their location in the swap fileand wipes that also.http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page14.html#BcWipeOne note of caution, if you have your swap file turned offfor any reason, it starts wiping the free space on drive C:\which can take a long time.Jake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frogman Posted March 30, 2010 Author Share Posted March 30, 2010 It is another one of the plethora of waysto monitor your activities. Mine, for instance,contains links to the last 2 videos I watched onCNN's website.Things like Crap Cleaner do a good job of gettingmost of them. It's always at the top of the listat filehippo dot comhttp://www.filehippo.com/To assuage any paranoia, try the last freewareversion of BCWipe, it not only wipes the datfiles, but finds their location in the swap fileand wipes that also.http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page14.html#BcWipeOne note of caution, if you have your swap file turned offfor any reason, it starts wiping the free space on drive C:\which can take a long time.JakeHow do I tell if the swap file is on or off?I have heard about this swap file before and always wondered what and where it is on Windows 98 S.E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triger49 Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 (edited) Right click MyComputerProperties>performance>virtualmemoryThe radio button should be ticked that says"let windows decide..blah blah blah"Which means the swap file is turned on.JakeWhoa, only answered part of your question...the actual file is "win386.swp" located in yourwindows directory. To see it you must have "showall files" checked in folder options. Edited March 30, 2010 by triger49 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
submix8c Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 I wouldn't mess with the Swap File unless you do a little reading on the subject first. You could lock your computer up, depending on how much RAM you have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frogman Posted March 30, 2010 Author Share Posted March 30, 2010 (edited) I wouldn't mess with the Swap File unless you do a little reading on the subject first. You could lock your computer up, depending on how much RAM you have.I happened to remove an .xml icon that appeared in the C:\WINDOWS\UserData folder, and I am sure it was called something like iconstate, and the reason I removed it was my picture icons where showing as a cable upstream icon instead of my normal photosuite icon.I would have perhaps restored this but for some reason I had already emptied the re-cycle bin.Is it safe to delete the folders that appear in C:\WINDOWS\UserData on Windows 98 S.E?In other words is it safe to remove these .xml extensions?Also I had read somewhere that by changing the settings for the typical role of this computer to Network Server instead of Desktop Computer it would give me more memory space, have you heard that? Edited March 30, 2010 by frogman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Multibooter Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 BCWipe, it not only wipes the dat files, but finds their location in the swap file and wipes that also. http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page14.html#BcWipeIs there a utility which zeroes out Win98 and WinXP swapfiles, similar to sdelete, leaving zeroed out but functioning swapfiles?This could reduce the size of compressed disk/partition images containing swapfiles, besides deleting bad stuff, such as spyware or infected files. No idea whether a computer could get infected via the content of a swapfile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PROBLEMCHYLD Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 The index.dat files and any other file can be deleted in Dos, with a simple bat file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Multibooter Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 (edited) The index.dat files and any other file can be deleted in Dos, with a simple bat file.I'd like to keep the swap files, but with zeroed out content. BTW, when you have multiple operating systems on your computer, you can delete index.dat etc of the other non-active operating systems (if the current opsys can access the files of those other operating systems). Edited March 30, 2010 by Multibooter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triger49 Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 BCWipe, it not only wipes the dat files, but finds their location in the swap file and wipes that also. http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page14.html#BcWipeIs there a utility which zeroes out Win98 and WinXP swapfiles, similar to sdelete, leaving zeroed out but functioning swapfiles?This could reduce the size of compressed disk/partition images containing swapfiles, besides deleting bad stuff, such as spyware or infected files. No idea whether a computer could get infected via the content of a swapfile.Hey Multibooter;Been thinking about you just hoping that adventure withtenga virus was not a result of your helping me with Emailarchive issues. But anyway, BCWipe will zero out a swap file. Windows willkick up a fuss about it...but it will do it. Another one I often use is Western Digitals DataLifeguardtools. If you have spare hard drive, you can use the copyutilty to mirror your current drive C: and it will ignoreindex.dat files and the swap file...leaving you with bootablemirror. The secret is, you have to be running the OS you wish tomirror. Another words, you can't mirror your win98 partition whilerunning XP and have it bootable.I use this scheme sometimes when I want run Paragons backup/restoreutilty to make an Iso image.Jake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodgerOver Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 Hi,I use delindex: http://www.burzurq.com/forum/delindex.html to delete index.dat files (on WIN 98 SE)To nullify data in the SWAP file works fine with Mutilate, but only if you have a fixed size SWAP file: http://mutilatefilewiper.com/ie5.htm (WIN 98).Both are batch files to be used from DOS. Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arminius Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 The odd thing is that I don't have a C:\WINDOWS\UserData folder on my 98SE installation.The closest thing I have to it is C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\UserDataI think the reason is that I don't use 98SE online anymore therefore I didn't bother upgrading IE past version 5.5 SP2. I seem to recall that IE 6.0 and IE 6.0SP1 did things a little differently and I had a C:\WINDOWS\UserData folder back when I was using them.Probably the easiest way to delete the index.dat file is to create a WININIT.INI file with the following entry:[Rename]NUL=C:\WINDOWS\USERDATA\INDEX.DATWININIT.INI will delete index.dat when you reboot. Windows will create a new index.dat file but the old one and all the data it contains will be gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queue Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 I use 98SE actively, including using IE6, and do NOT have aC:\WINDOWS\UserDatafolder.Like Arminius, I have:C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\UserDatainstead.Queue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arminius Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 I use 98SE actively, including using IE6, and do NOT have aC:\WINDOWS\UserDatafolder.Like Arminius, I have:C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\UserDatainstead.QueueHmm.... the mystery deepens.Come to think of it I never ever installed IE 6x on 98SE. I did use IE6 and IE6SP1 on 98FE for a while though and was not too happy with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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