Index.dat file left over after deleting Cookies

In windows 5.5, when I delete all the cookies there is one folder left over. It's "index.dat"
When I have cookies they can sometimes tell where I've been. When I delete them, there gone (except index.dat). I was wondering if that one (index.dat) is not removable because someone (MS?) can get your activity by that file? In past versions of ie when you delete all the cookies, everything in that folder is gone. What is that one doing, and why is it left in 5.5? Thanks, Chris.

 

Hi Chris!

Get the Spider and you won't have to worry about that anymore. It'll kill all copies of index.dat so that when you delete the cookies, you delete the cookies!

Excerpted from an earlier post;

When you download and unzip it to a directory, it creates three or four files; one is the main program called SPIDER.EXE, another is the HELP file, and lastly SPIDERBITE.EXE which is an adjunct to the main program, You do not ever need to click the SPIDERBITE.EXE file, always use the SPIDER.EXE file to run the program or a shortcut to it.

You can place the folder and its file anywhere you like on your drive. The program is free standing and writes no program files to your system directory.

If and when you run Spider, start by clicking SPIDER.EXE (or shortcut) and when it opens click the magnifying glass icon at the toolbar, when it finished scanning click the icon that looks like an ambulance, the select Continue from the next screen. When you get the screen with all the options boxes, tag every one of them and click finish. Reboot and the tagged files will be cleared but more importantly, all hidden index.dat files will also be cleared, regardless of where they are hiding.

 

Zephyr.....You never did answer the question: What does it do? What is in it? Why is it there? I'm curious, too.

 

I'll not speculate on what index.dat does or what MS intent was when they implemented it but I can tell you that it's a cache type file that contains a list of all the cookies you generate (perhaps other data) and often recreates them after you have deleted them.

Please visit the Spider site I linked for a somewhat better definition.

I don't dwell on it much other than to have tried the Spider utility and find it to work as described.

I have little concern as to anyone knowing my browsing habits. If you have something to hide or want to prevent other users from having access to files that portray your usage, it's an excellent way to prevent that.

I rarely use it except when I am having some sort of problem that points to the possibility of a defective cookie or TIF. Then the Spider wipes them clean and leaves no doubt. I originally got it for that purpose. Rarely use it.

Best regards.

 

Thank you. I will definitely check out their site.

 

Wow, I can't believe how much stuff I had in there. I tried to "Clean up" but when I did, I got a error message, "Access violation at address 00000013 write of address 01B9CiFC" I tried a couple times, computer froze and got an illegal operation. I can't "Clean up," what could be wrong? Thanks, Chris.

 

Chris--
1) What does index.dat do? See here
http://www.purgeie.com/indexdat.htm
2) Are you deleting Cookies in the correct way? See
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q278835
You do not do it from C:\Windows\Cookies
3) You should not try to delete index.dat unless you have deleted all your Cookies.
4) I have been surfing for three years. My index.dat is still less than 1MB. I think it shrinks some each time I clean up the cache. I keep quite a few cookies, but delete ones I know offer me no benefit. I delete the rest of TIF (except index.dat) every week at least.
5) Not sure it is worth worrying about deleting index.dat.

 

Deleting index.dat or running Spider against it, should be part of periodic maintenance.
This file grows over time and can slow down performance, since IE uses this as an index into the \TIF files.

An empty index.dat file is 32KB.

 

Spider doesn't work like they clame it does

I have used spider for a wile now. I thought it was pretty cool. I asumed that when I checked in "Preferences" to "delete all cookies" it was deleting them. Today, after "spider has bitten, do you want to reboot to get rid of the files" I went to "windows" "Cookies" from windows explorer and I had a bunch of cookies in the folder. All this time I thought "Delete all Cookies" ment Delete all cookies. I wonder what else this program does or doesn't do.
How many people who use Spider think it works, but don't know it doesn't do what it says?