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NOTE: This tip may be very advanced for new computer users. Please proceed with caution! Have you ever seen one of those ads that says, “Your computer is storing a secret record of every site you’ve ever visited?” Did you know that's true? If you are using Internet Explorer and Windows, the computer stores TWO copies of every URL you visit! Even if you click ‘clear history’ and ‘delete temporary files’, the secret history files remain in a hidden directory that you can’t even get to through Windows! These secret files can get pretty big and slow down your machine. They can also hold copies of your passwords and other personal information that you might not really want sitting around on your machine. The good news is you don’t have to shell out $40 for whatever programs those ads are trying to sell! You can "wash" your Windows yourself even faster than you could download one of those programs. And it’s free! HOW TO FIND THE HIDDEN FILES Microsoft has hidden these files extra carefully. They are each called index.dat, and they are stored in secret directories. Windows Explorer will not display these files, even if you have your folders set to ‘display hidden and system files.’ So for this little adventure, we’re going to call up trusty ol’ DOS. (Still the ultimate power in the universe.) If you’ve never used DOS before, don’t worry! We’ll go through this step by step for Windows 95 or 98. (If you’re using 2000 or XP, you’ll just need to find your Internet History and Content directories.) First, open a DOS shell. To do this click Start / Programs / MS-DOS Prompt (or Command Prompt). We need to move into your “history” directory, and on most systems, typing in the following commands will do that: c:
<enter> If you type dir and hit enter, it will give you a list of all the files in that directory, except for the secret hidden one. If you’re running Internet Explorer 5 (which something like 95% of the world is using), type the following: cd history.ie5 <enter> Now you’re in the secret directory! Type dir and - voila! - see the very large index.dat file it lists. That file contains every URL you’ve ever visited and information you’ve typed into forms like search engine boxes or form mail submissions. If you want to see the information yourself, you’ll need a special ‘hex editor.’ Look on Google, there are a bunch of them around. There is another hidden file in your content directory (in c:\windows\content\content.ie5) that has similar information. HOW TO DELETE THEM These files are also protected by Windows, so if you try to delete them, you’ll get an error message. But we can get around that, again with DOS. But this time, we need to unleash the full power of DOS by restarting into MS-DOS mode. From the Start menu, select Shutdown and on the pop-up window, select Restart in MS-Dos Mode if that option is available. If not, restart normally and hit F8 as your computer restarts and says ‘Now loading Windows.’ (I usually just hit it over and over because the timing can be a little tricky. Just keep hitting it until the special menu comes up.) Then, select Command prompt only. Now you’re in real DOS mode, and Windows can’t block your access to any files. Deleting the index files is simple from this point. Just type the following commands: cd windows
<enter> ‘Deltree’ will erase the directories and everything in them. It might take a while, because there can be a whole lot of files in those directories. Just hang on, and it’ll do it’s thing. Be EXTREAMLY CAREFUL not to use this command on any directories you need to keep (You know, like Windows) Once that’s finished, restart Windows by typing exit or physically restarting the machine. Windows will make new directories when you restart the computer, but the directories will now be clean and empty. Rinse and repeat as often as necessary. :o) -- Tom Dalton
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