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Deleting Files In Content.IE5

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babypooh:
While searching for a file, I stumbled onto the content.ie5 folder so I opened it up and there were 4 other folders in there. I opened up each folder and couldn't believe the amount of files that were in these folders! There were hundreds of them in each folder! Most of them were picture files and HTML files. But there were a lot in these folders that didn't have any file extensions or anything. They had numbers for names and under file type it just said "file".

My question is, is it safe to delete these 4 folders inside of the content.ie5 folder? If not, is it safe to at least delete these files?

I have been trying to find out something about this for 2 weeks now and no one seems to have any clue what to do or I get mixed opinions on what to do. If any one out there knows for sure, please let me know. Thanks in advance!

Baby Pooh  :confused:

sporkme:
yes. this is not only safe, but a wonderful idea.  these files catalogue your internet explorer web surfing history for any corporation, government, or individual that wants to know.  these directories are basically built-in spyware, and gobble up your precious hard drive space.

the simplest way to do it is to add the following to the end of your c:\autoexec.bat file using the notepad application.


--- Code: ---
--- End code ---

this way, every time you reboot your computer, the files are all deleted, and then the massive swap file lands right on top of it on the hard drive.

for in-depth info about this, see the microsoft's really hidden files story on the main page.

for an alternative web browser that won't spy on you, swing by the mozilla project.

to dig up your own superior, free operating system, check out linuxiso.org.

welcome to the forums.  there are certain members that just like to mindlessly bash linux and promote

[ July 22, 2002: Message edited by: sporkme / bob ]

sporkme:
pooh, in response to your private message...

window washer does one thing in addidtion to deleting the files:
it deletes some visited pages info from your registry.
you can do this yourself, by opening regedit, searching for a recently visited website, and deleting all of the keys that come up in the folder with it.

you can just delete the folders to save time, it is the same thing with fewer commands... windows re-creates the folders automatically so to continue merilly spying on you.

happy to be of assistance.

sporkme:
of course you can always download mandrake or red hat and your OS won't save these files////////

[ July 24, 2002: Message edited by: sporkme / bob ]

Calum:
you can get and install linux for free, as a dual boot with your windows setup and then boot into linux and delete all the pesky "hidden" files using a familiar windows-like GUI such as KDE, that's what i did. While you're there, you might as well pay attention to what's going on in your new linux system, since you will probably decide that windows is shit and then you can safely delete ALL the files you find in windows. THAT'll save you some disk space, and it's sure to get rid of all the spyware too.

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