Resetting read/unread links and colors in IE

Hi there -

I hope you can help me. I regularly frequent a particular web site for new information in my work. All of the links have changed color to indicate they've been read, except for new items. It's a convenient way for me to see if there's any new information posted since my last visit.

Unfortunately, running programs such as Clean Sweep and System Cleaner reset all links in Internet Explorer to their "unread" state and color. I've discovered that neither resorting the Internet Cache, the Temporary Internet Files folder nor the Windows Temp folder has any effect or "restoring" the links to their "read" state and color. Do you have any idea what file or files I might change or restore from backup that would fix this for me? Any help appreciated. Thanks!


And that's the latest from -


Rick Manasa

 

It's your history files that control this sort of thing. I don't have cleansweep any more but I know one of it's routines included deleting the history files. Not sure what it was call but I believe it was called internet sweep. When you ran it, you were given the chance to uncheck certain items. The history was one of them. You might check this out. I don't have any experience with system cleaner but most likely it does the same. You might have a look at the options of the program and see if it's there.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, Zander.

Do you know the file name(s) of the "history files "? I can restore from last week's backups. Thanks!

Rick

 

Where the history files are located depends on what OS you're using. The folder where they are located is called History. The default location in win98 is c:\window\history. In XP it's c:\documents and settings\your username\local settings\history. Don't know for sure about windows me or win2000. You can simply so a search for history and you should find it. To restore it you should be able to just replace the current history folder with the older history folder. If you want to keep your current history, then copy all the files within the old history folder into the history folder you have right now.

 

Hi Zander ( and all) -

I found the folder with the current History files in it right where you said it'd be - C:\Documents and Settings\My Name\Local Settings\History - and proceeded to restore last weeks files from that folder on my backups. Unfortunately, the procedure didn't restore the "read" state to my IE links. Also, the history folder on the backup didn't have files labeled "Wednesday" and "Today" in it, like my current History folder has. Instead, it had something called "index.dat" and a folder called "History.IE5" which contained other folders with long names like "MSHist012003072120030722" which held index.dat files.

So, I think we're getting closer, but we're not quite there yet. I'm ready to try your next suggestion. Thanks, Zander!

Rick

 

Guess I kinda put my foot in my mouth here. I've never really messed with this much and assumed you could just copy one from the other. I should have known better if for no other reason than windows won't allow you to delete the history folder itself. From what I can determine you also can't copy the entire history folder (not by normal means anyway) , only the individual files within each folder. If you only copied the shortcuts within the folders I'm sure copying them back wouldn't work. Sorry, I guess I really don't know what to tell you. Seems if it's possible it could maybe get complicated. What did you use to back them up? Anybody else have any ideas on how to go about this?

 

I started messing with this a bit more and found you can copy the entire history folder. Not quite sure what I was trying to do before. Guess it's just not my day. The only way I can think of doing this would be to copy the entire folder and replace the newer one with the older one. It may or may not work. Perhaps this is what you already have done. Also, windows may not allow you to overwrite the folder (it may be in use by windows) . If this were the case you probably could do it by logging on as another user with administrator rights and do it from there. Sorry I can't be more help.

 

Thanks for hanging with me on this, Zander -

Copying the files and history folder, as you discovered, is quite possible. No issue there. What's puzzling is that the folder on my backup contains different data. I use Ghost, so there shouldn't be any funny formatting issues. There aren't any files named after the days of the week - only index.dat files and folders that contain other index.dat files.

I'll dig through some older backups to see if the "Wednesday ", etc., files turn up. For now though I'm stumped.

Maybe someone knows of a programmatic way to reset the links to the "read" state? Any help appreciated. Thanks!

Rick

 

rmanasa--Just guessing here, but isn't the History file just a bunch of URL's? You are not saving the page on which you read some items. So it must be the page itself that sets some sort of cookie to tell your PC to show the "already read" color. Restoring the History is not going to do it, especially if the page has some changes on it. In the latter case, indeed, someone may have added to the item you read so it would, in fact, no longer be a "read" item.
Like I say, I am just thinking out loud.

 

Thanks for the reply, Jim.

The History seems to be at least a list of URLs. I don't know what else it might hold. Your idea of a cookie certainly has merit. I'm not sure how to restore this cookie from backup, though. Any ideas?

I'm fairly certain the culprit is either the Internet Cache, Internet History or Temporary Files. These, in addition to the Recycle Bin and Lost Cluster Files, are what are "cleaned up" by Norton Systemworks Clean Sweep. If one of these sounds like a cookie that might control this flag, then that may be it. If you have any idea what the file name of the cookie or the Internet Cache or whatever might be called, it would make restoring it from backup easy as 1-2-3. Any help appreciated. Thanks!

Rick

 

rmanasa--I do not use Clean Sweep, but I suspect somewhere there is a setting "Delete Cookies" and, if so, you are deleting cookies when you use that program. Unless that program backs up the deleted cookies (which I doubt), I suspect you cannot restore the deleted cookies. (even if they are the secret to the "Read" color.)
IE similarly has a "Delete Cookies" buton at IE Tools|Internet Options|General tab.
All these delete all cookies.
If you want to be selective about deleting cookies, you need a cookie management program like Cookie Jar.
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/cookiejar.asp
However, I would not be too optimistic that cookies are the solution to your problem. It is just a wild guess on my part. But if they are, you will be looking for one or more cookies with "your-username@the-name-of-the-site.com" , where "the-name-of-the-site.com" is the site where you want to retain the "Read" color.

 

Jim and Zander (and all others) -

I've definitely determined that the read/unread indicators are tied to the Internet History files. How? By clicking on a few links on my home page (so they shift to the "read" state/color) and then running Clean Sweep with different items selected for cleaning - one time the Internet Cache, one time the Temporary Files, one time the Internet History, etc. The only thing that reset the links to their Unread state was cleaning the Internet History. So, some component of that is responsible for shifting the Read/Unread state of page links.

This brings me back to why my backups have such odd components in the History folder - basically index.dat files and not the familiar files based on days (Yesterday, Today, Thursday, etc.). Since I back up weekly with Ghost it's hard to understand why I can't find them. Maybe the file names are saved as something different than Today, Yesterday, etc. Any help appreciated. Thanks to all!

Rick

 

OK, here's the latest. While the History folders still contain only the puzzling index.dat files, the Temporary Internet Files folders on my backups are fully populated with a variety of .htm files that are "links" to pages I've visited on the web. I can restore these folders from my backups without any trouble ... except for the index.dat file in each folder.

I'm just guessing here, but does it make sense that the index.dat file might be needed for IE to read what files are in the Temporary Internet Files folder? Kinda like if the FAT is messed up, you can't see what files are on your hard disk, even though the files themselves are probably OK?

I get a very cryptic message when I try to do anything to the index.dat file: "Cannot (delete, rename, move, whatever) index: It is being used by another person or program." I'm the only person on this machine, so that's not the problem. I've stopped or closed all applications. Tried the REN command from the Command Prompt (Different message, same result: "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. "). Restarted in Safe Mode and tried it all from there. Nada.

Help, help, help! How could something so simple be so complicated? Any suggestions gratefully accepted and considered. Thanks!


Rick

 

rmanasa--

Yes, that is what index.dat files do. Can't say I understand it entirely, but the various index.dat files help interpret the info in the other files in the folder.
It is possible to delete index.dat files using DOS, but most people just leave them alone. They will partially (at least) clean themselves if you clean the rest of the folder. (You should see the size of the index.dat shrink after a cleanup of the rest of the folder--usually to about 32KB.)
Your second from last post does not mention that you cleaned up your TIF file when you ran that experiment. However, your last post suggests that when you did clean TIF you lost the Read color. That would make some sense since your were no longer accessing the stored version of the site in TIF (since it was empty except for index.dat) and rather had to get a new version of the page from the website. That would suggest the Read color is remembered in the TIF folder and not by the website, and that cookies have nothing to do with it.
I am not sure I understand what the experiment deleting History proves, unless accessing through History bypasses the stored TIF files and again loads new versions of the page. I am not aware that deleting History has any effect on TIF, but who knows. Once, again, I think History is only a collection of URL's, like Favorites.

 

Hi Jim -

On the TIF file - There is no TIF file in either the Temporary Internet Files folder or in the History folder. Where is this file?

I don't know what to tell you about cleaning the History folder either. I can only report what happened - cleaning it out reset the "Read" state of the links.

That makes sense about the index.dat file letting IE know what files are in the folder. I'll try booting with a DOS CD and deleting the current index.dat file and copying an older one to see if that makes any difference.


Rick

 

rmanasa--TIF=Temporary Internet File. Maybe that is what you meant by Internet Cache?
Sorry I cannot help solve your problem.

 

I appreciate the thought and effort you've been putting into this. No apologies necessary.

TIF - got it. I'm quite certain it has nothing to do with the Internet Cache or the TIF and has everything to do with the Internet History. I've played with all settings in both Clean Sweep and in the Internet Options in IE, and the only thing that resets the "read" state of links is clearing the History. Try it yourself and see.

Which brings me back to the earlier issue of restoring the index.dat file. I've been caught up in other things today, but plan to try your suggestion about copying the old file from DOS tomorrow. Thanks again for your help!

Rick

 

You can't delete the index.dat files while windows is running because it's always in use by windows. If you're using FAT instead of NTFS then booting to a dos prompt is the way to do it. You can also delete it as I stated before by logging on as another user and then delete it from there.

 

Zander and Jim -

Success! I created another admin account, logged on as that person, copied an older index.dat file over the current one in my main account and - voila! - my links are back to their "read" state! I've made a copy of the "good" index.dat file - in case I blow it out again - and all is right with the world.

Thank both of you very much for your help!

Rick

 

rmanasa--Glad to hear the good news. Thanks for sharing the solution with us.