Deleting index.dat files on Windows XP

[Anonymous]

Hi,

On XP I wanted to delete index.dat files from the cookies folder and the Temporary Internet Files folder. I did this by: -

1. Booting XP in Safe Mode (hold F8) during initial boot
2. In Safe Mode (without networking support), XP does not lock the index.dat files as it does in normal mode
3. I renamed the index.dat files to, say "index renamed.dat"
4. Rebooted into normal mode
5. Right click on the renamed files and erase

XP regenerates the index.dat files when Internet Explorer loads again.

Thought others may find this information useful.

Any other ideas on how to do this?

Cheers, Rob

 

[garrett01]

Another solution is to use the boot option in the notrax scheduler. I have had some success there.

Another is it get 'spiderbite' and use that. The downside there is you need to do a freespace wipe afterward.

Garrett

 

[redleg]

Hi,

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Any other ideas on how to do this?

Cheers, Rob

Hi Rob,

You could also create another admin account, log off the current account with the offending index.dat/etc and log in to the new admin. Surf over to the original account directories and erase them there. It works well for win2k and should prove to be a lot quicker than reboot to safemode- just logoff/on, not sure if this would work with 'fastuser switching' (?) but worth a try.