Index.dat

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PC Pitstop recommend that index.dat be removed, of course by using PC Pitstop Optimixe 2.0. Which I’m reluctant to do without checking with you guys first. I’ve landed in the fire once too often. So say yea or nay to the deletion.

Thanks in advance for your help.

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Hello Gloria,

There are many Index.dat files on your computer. I have 28 of them at the moment. These files are used by Microsoft to maintain a history of items in the folder that contains the Index.dat file. For example, Index.dat in your Cookies folder contains information about current and past cookies. Index.dat in your History Folder for Internet Explorer contains information about web pages that you visited.

If you’re worried about people who have access to your computer being able to see what cookies you’ve had in the past, or which web pages you visited, you can use a utility such as PC Pitstop or CCleaner to delete the Index.dat files. Otherwise, there is no need to do so.
Also, keep in mind that Windows will re-create the Index.dat files at the earliest possible opportunity, and start filling them again.

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Hello Gloria,

There are many Index.dat files on your computer. I have 28 of them at the moment. These files are used by Microsoft to maintain a history of items in the folder that contains the Index.dat file. For example, Index.dat in your Cookies folder contains information about current and past cookies. Index.dat in your History Folder for Internet Explorer contains information about web pages that you visited.

If you’re worried about people who have access to your computer being able to see what cookies you’ve had in the past, or which web pages you visited, you can use a utility such as PC Pitstop or CCleaner to delete the Index.dat files. Otherwise, there is no need to do so.
Also, keep in mind that Windows will re-create the Index.dat files at the earliest possible opportunity, and start filling them again.

No one else has access to my computer and I for one have nothing to hide. It’s no problem leaving things as they are, I just wondered if I had been given good or bad advice.

Thanks Argus and Dave for your input.

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PC Pitstop recommend that index.dat be removed, of course by using PC Pitstop Optimixe 2.0. Which I’m reluctant to do without checking with you guys first. I’ve landed in the fire once too often. So say yea or nay to the deletion.

Why would you remove it, when it’s going to be created the next time you use IE, for example (albeit a lot smaller and without the old data)?

True, perhaps for some privacy/security concerns, but then it’s not much to look at there (old URLs, files opened, since it’s an index), and if someone can get into that place, they already have access to your profile.

The whole question comes from the fact that it isn’t removed/a new clean copy isn’t created when you clean the TIF etc. with the usual options in IE.

Removing it can be done manually with some tricks, since it’s locked (haven’t tested this in ages), or as you say with the help of some third-party software such as CCleaner etc.

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But, those that HAVE to hide everything from anybody else, this is a must to know and do.

There are so many places where the history of recorded OS functions, one will go bananas just thinking about how to remove ALL traces.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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But, those that HAVE to hide everything from anybody else, this is a must to know and do.

There are so many places where the history of recorded OS functions, one will go bananas just thinking about how to remove ALL traces.

That’s what the Gutman level Secure Deletion option in CCleaner is for Dave.

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I don’t need it, as I have nothing to hide.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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I don’t need it, as I have nothing to hide.

Everyone has something to hide, Dave.

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I don’t need it, as I have nothing to hide.

I have to hide my customers’ sensitive data and my family’s personal data.

It’s amazing how much stuff gets found on old hard disks that should have been erased.

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I have to hide my customers’ sensitive data and my family’s personal data.

That has nothing to do with the “History” that Windows keep saving all over the place.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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That has nothing to do with the “History” that Windows keep saving all over the place.

Dave,

My comment was in response to the post about Gutman 35 pass secure file deletion.

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