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General discussion

Cookies/index.dat

Nov 28, 2003 9:46PM PST

For years my Cookies folder has held a file called index.dat that can not be deleted nor opened when I clean up my computor. But since it did not seem to be causing a problem I never gave it a thought.

Today out of curiosity I opened it in Notepad wich revealed "Client UrlCache MMF Ver 5.2

Discussion is locked

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Re:Cookies/index.dat
Nov 29, 2003 12:28AM PST

index.dat is a hidden file that contain all of the Web sites that you have ever visited. Every URL, and every Web page is listed there. Not only that but all of the email that has been sent or received through Outlook or Outlook Express is also being logged. Clearing the temporary internet files does not clear the content or the index.dat itself. You need a 3rd party program to clean or clear the content of index.dat

Get Milly's Winclean to do the job Grin - it's free.

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I copied this file in XP to my documents and read it and then
Nov 29, 2003 5:53AM PST

clicked to delete cookies in the internet options. Then I copied it to my documents again after doing that and it cleared every entry in that index.dat file. So if you have XP it seems that you only have to delete cookies from the internet options to be private.

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Re:Re:Cookies/index.dat
Nov 29, 2003 6:58PM PST

Donna, I ran the program and it appears that it cleaned out the cookies. My question is, "How do I open the dat file to see what is in it?" Auggie

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Re:Re:Re:Cookies/index.dat
Nov 29, 2003 9:46PM PST

Just right-click and select Open with then choose Notepad.

Happy

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Re:Re:Re:Re:Cookies/index.dat
Nov 29, 2003 11:40PM PST

Thanks Donna that did it. But shame on me I have the same reference in dat file that the original poster referred to" Client UrlCache MMF Ver 5.2 which, as he stated acording to Goodle references porn sites. I downloaded and ran a program called, Windows & Internet Washer but the file is still there. Can I get rid of it?

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Re:Re:Re:Re:Cookies/index.dat
Nov 30, 2003 12:08AM PST

I ran Spider as suggested by Marianna but it is still there.

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Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Cookies/index.dat
Nov 30, 2003 12:22AM PST
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Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Cookies/index.d at
Nov 30, 2003 1:34AM PST

Donna, I ran two of those programs but when I open dat file, it still contains that "naughty" "Client Vrl Cache MMF Ver 5.2" Otherwise it just has a couple of cookies that I want because they save passwords. I should have mentioned that I have Win 98se so I don't get what your links show as before and after Just the bad cookie and a couple of good cookies.

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Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Cookies/inde x.d at
Nov 30, 2003 1:47AM PST

Hi The Client UrlCache MMF Ver 5.2 that you are seeing will always be there because that is just an info or name of what application and version that Microsoft is using to generate the index.dat.

Happy

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Have a look here:
Nov 30, 2003 1:56AM PST

If you
are running 98 or ME, from time to time, when you start your machine, hit F8
on the second dos screen and choose start with command prompt only. At the
prompt, delete folders like temporary internet files, cookies, recent,
history and such. They contain these spyware files called .dat. Once this is
done, just restart and windows will re-create the folders but they will be
empty of info. Although these are "system" folders and are needed for the
system to run, their content is NOT needed. The content is just Big Brother
stuff.

http://tinyurl.com/x3o8

Does this help?

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Spider 116 ?
Nov 29, 2003 12:38AM PST

HI Cactus,

I have tried the little program called "Spider 116".
Have a look here:

http://www.fsm.nl/ward/

On my winMe it did NOT clean up the entire index.dat file though.

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Re:Cookies/index.dat
Nov 29, 2003 12:46AM PST

I use IE for a browser and I find that I can do a search/ find for Content.IE5.
it gives me a folder with ALL temp folders including the index.dat file.
it can be deleted however you must reboot immediately after.
in the case of the XP O/S there are other *.dat files such as NTuser.dat that can also be deleted.
the system regenerates these files with the default value of I think 69kb on re-boot.
in the case of Netscape, i suspect you can do a search for just index.dat, and delete it and reboot immediately after that.

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index data file
Nov 29, 2003 2:11AM PST

The index.dat file is a master control file used by Windows to maintain and
keep track of cookies - small bits of data that are sent from a web site to
your system and stored there for various reasons. Some of these cookies
contain your name and password for a system so you don't have to log on
again, others contain settings so that you see customized content (like
local news and weather), others track whether or not you've clicked on
various advertisements you've seen.

None of these cookies, nor the index.dat file, can track where you've been.
No one can access them and find out what's in them. Only the web site that
sent you a particular cookie can get that data back again.

More: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=uv2np5mtAHA.1156%40tkmsftngp03&rnum=20&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dhow%2Bto%2Bdelete%2B:index%2Bdata%2Bfile%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26start%3D10%26sa%3DN

OR click on this link:

http://tinyurl.com/x07l

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Re:index data file--Thanks everyone for.......
Nov 29, 2003 8:07AM PST

yours responses.

The suspect cookie I mentioned is the only entry in the file, and since I do not leave any passwords remembered on any sites I'm wondering if it would be safe to simply delete the cookie from the index.dat using Notepad.

Any thoughts on this.

Thanks

caktus

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Re:Re:index data file--Thanks everyone for.......
Nov 29, 2003 11:16AM PST

Unless you can edit it out of the Window environment (or current logged in user if applicable to your operating system) I doubt you will be able to save any changes due to the file being in use by Windows.

If you do delete Index.dat windows will just recreate a new clean one for you.

Some interesting reading about Index.dat and hidden files can be found here.

You might want to research the whole story at this site. The article is Windows 9x related but the story of Desktop.ini and Index.dat files is pretty much applicable to XP.

http://www.astalavista.com/library/os/win95-98/mshidden.txt

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Re:index data file
Nov 30, 2003 7:19AM PST

Marianna, when I did F 8 I got something other than DOS on my Windows 98SE. However, I can do start, shutdown, restart in DOS. My problem is I don't know what to type in the C prompt to get rid of Client VrlCache MMF Ver 5.2 in index.dat file.

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Here it is explained what and how to do:
Nov 30, 2003 7:49AM PST
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Re:Re:Cookies/index.dat didn't work 4 me
Nov 30, 2003 3:59AM PST

I searched for "Content.IE5" but no files found.

Since I use IE6 IU also searched for "Content.IE6" but still no files found.

I am running ME.

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Re:Re:Re:Cookies/index.dat didn't work 4 me
Nov 30, 2003 4:20AM PST

Caktus, I have WIN98se and get to IE5 this way:

right click on my computer/click on explore/drive (C)/windows/temp internet

and you have IE5 (whatever)

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Cookies/index.dat didn't work 4 me
Nov 30, 2003 10:20AM PST

go to start>find> and type in Content.IE5 and 'enter'.
you will get one folder, which you can delete in its entirety and then re-boot immediately after.

this will re-generate the index.dat file with the deault of 49kb.

david williams