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C:\WINDOWS\UserData on Windows 98 S.E?


frogman

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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?

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\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.htm

Maybe this helps:

http://support.it-mate.co.uk/?mode=Products&p=index.datsuite

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It is another one of the plethora of ways

to monitor your activities. Mine, for instance,

contains links to the last 2 videos I watched on

CNN's website.

Things like Crap Cleaner do a good job of getting

most of them. It's always at the top of the list

at filehippo dot com

http://www.filehippo.com/

To assuage any paranoia, try the last freeware

version of 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#BcWipe

One note of caution, if you have your swap file turned off

for any reason, it starts wiping the free space on drive C:\

which can take a long time.

Jake

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It is another one of the plethora of ways

to monitor your activities. Mine, for instance,

contains links to the last 2 videos I watched on

CNN's website.

Things like Crap Cleaner do a good job of getting

most of them. It's always at the top of the list

at filehippo dot com

http://www.filehippo.com/

To assuage any paranoia, try the last freeware

version of 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#BcWipe

One note of caution, if you have your swap file turned off

for any reason, it starts wiping the free space on drive C:\

which can take a long time.

Jake

How 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

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Right click MyComputer

Properties>performance>virtualmemory

The radio button should be ticked that says

"let windows decide..blah blah blah"

Which means the swap file is turned on.

Jake

Whoa, only answered part of your question...

the actual file is "win386.swp" located in your

windows directory. To see it you must have "show

all files" checked in folder options.

Edited by triger49
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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 by frogman
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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#BcWipe

Is 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.

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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 by Multibooter
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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#BcWipe

Is 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 with

tenga virus was not a result of your helping me with Email

archive issues.

But anyway, BCWipe will zero out a swap file. Windows will

kick up a fuss about it...but it will do it.

Another one I often use is Western Digitals DataLifeguard

tools. If you have spare hard drive, you can use the copy

utilty to mirror your current drive C: and it will ignore

index.dat files and the swap file...leaving you with bootable

mirror. The secret is, you have to be running the OS you wish to

mirror. Another words, you can't mirror your win98 partition while

running XP and have it bootable.

I use this scheme sometimes when I want run Paragons backup/restore

utilty to make an Iso image.

Jake

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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\UserData

I 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.DAT

WININIT.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.

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I use 98SE actively, including using IE6, and do NOT have a

C:\WINDOWS\UserData

folder.

Like Arminius, I have:

C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\UserData

instead.

Queue

Hmm.... 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.

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