I just learned how to delete protected index.dat files in Win XP with IE6 installed without reboot and thought I might as well post the instruction here in case someone else is interested.
note: IE7 seems to have a built in solution for this already:
http://blogs.msdn.co...06/01/12/512232.aspx Does it work as advertised?
Until recently I thought ccleaner regularly cleared the index.dat files (I have that option ticked in ccleaner) but apparently not on my system at least. Tools like ClearAllHistory ($20) claim to be able to delete index.dat on each window startup (I haven't tried it). If anyone knows of some easy and free way to mimic that feature of ClearAllHistory without IE7 then please inform me.
Instruction below condensed and modified from
http://www.arstdesig...icles/index.dat.html-----------------------------
INFO ABOUT INDEX.DAT FILES:
-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index.dat- index.dat are files related to cache, visited URLs, history, cookies that are hard to remove
- 3 types of index.dat: cache, cookies, history
- each user account contains all three
- index.dat might be loaded/locked by multiple processes at win start
- therefore index.dat files can't be deleted the regular way
---> 3 * num of accounts * num of processes to kill (but many are the same process)
---> 3 * num of accounts index.dat files to delete
To see for yourself, do a search for "index.dat" in path "C:\Documents and Settings" (might require enabling viewing of hidden files in Explorer settings first). Browse found index.dat files with Index Dat Spy ,
http://www.stevengou...datspy/download.html . Alternatively, just check the size and creation date for the index.dat files. If a file is old it probably contains track records of internet usage.
NOTE: I've only tried this on index.dat in the "C:\Documents and Settings" path Windows puts index.dat files at other places too. For example:
C:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\OfflineCache\index.dat
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Cookies\index.dat
But those files seem different and deleting them might create problems (from what I've read - I haven't tried it). Also, at least on my system, those files can either not be read by Index Dat Spy or can be read but contain no internet usage related information.
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NEEDED TOOLS:
sysinternals handle (command line freeware)
http://www.microsoft...dThreads/Handle.mspxsysinternals pskill (command line freeware)
http://www.microsoft...tilities/pskill.mspxautohotkey + compiled script DelIndexdat.exe (source below)
http://www.autohotkey.com/-----------------------------
DO THIS:
0. get & prepare tools
0. Put delindexdat.exe , handle.exe , pskill.exe in some folder and open two cmd windows there.
1. Cmd-line: handle \index.dat
2. For each process using index.dat, do in 2nd cmd window: pskill pid
(note: pid = the process id as listed by handle.exe. Do pskill on explorer.exe last)
(note: Antivirus tools might resist being killed. If so close/disable them manually and repeat 2.)
3. Cmd-line: delindexdat.exe
4. restart explorer (cmd-line: explorer)
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PREPARE TOOLS:
AUTOHOTKEY, save as DelIndexdat.ahk and compile to DelIndexdat.exe
Loop, C:\Documents and Settings\index.dat,, 1
FileDelete, %A_LoopFileFullPath%
HANDLE needed syntax: handle index.dat
PSKILL needed syntax: pskill <process name | process id>
example: pskill 1496
example: pskill explorer.exe
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note:
http://www.arstdesig...icles/index.dat.html also suggests creating read-only dummy index.dat files to prevent windows from later recreating some of the index.dat files. I haven't tried that and don't know if it gives any problems.
