All Things Microsoft > Microsoft Software
"Really Hidden Files"?
Centurian:
Hey ChakanTGM,
Your program sounds rather interesting in the fact that you say it stops IE from replacing those files.
However there is another way.
Go in under dos and delete the "hidden files" from the history folder first. You will have to use attrib and in order to that. Then go to Temporary Internet Files (C:\windows\tempor~1) and using attrib and dir change the attributes and remove EVERY FILE and FOLDER under the Temporary Internet Files folder. Then lastly delete the Temporary Internet Files folder.
Now when you reboot to windows don't use IE (or any browser based on the IE engine) to surf the net. Use only Mozilla based browsers and those files will not return.
I do that every time Windows crashes on me and I have to reinstall. Just crashed again a few days ago but this time I am expecting a set of Mandrake Linux disks tomorrow so I did not worry about it. I am hoping to permanently remove Windows soon.
Later
Centurian
jtpenrod:
quote: And I think I might know why they autorecreate these directories and don't want anyone to see them (God I hate to defend MS). I think if you have an old machine
with Win95 on it you will see that the cache is not so hidden, and if you delete it it will not recreate the cache on startup. This will cause many errors/problems and it
takes a little work to recreate this (there are instructions in microsofts KB)
--- End quote ---
There is *nothing* evil about these "really hidden files". It's just more Macro$uck incompetence in action: security through obscurity. (And we all know what an effective strategy that is :-D )They just couldn't put those files in, let's say, a protected, priviledged account (Root would be a nice, catchy name for it) requiring, like, its *own* password that would lock out all other users? Seems I've heard of something like that somewhere. Not only that, but these files *never* go away! I've had the same rig for six years, and up till a month ago, it ran Win 95. Now why in the hell would I want to know what web sites I visited six years ago? And yet there they were! Didn't anyone suggest to His Gatesness an auto-expire feature?(!) Deleting those damn things took a little over 12 minutes. And I freed up almost 50 MB of disk space. That is rediculous! Once they were gone, I had no problems whatsoever. In fact, Win 95 seemed to run considerably faster than before. Then I got Mandrake and parted company with His Gatesness for good. I can't say I miss him.
<Rick>:
To view the "Really Hidden Files," I just use my Gear Pro version 5. Its a CD writing software, and I can see EVERY file on my hard drive.
Have fun guys.
gump420:
I seriously doubt that these files are necessary to the operation of Windows/IE in any way shape or form, but I'm equally skeptical of them being malicious. I'm not very concerned about them in the first place, since I only use IE for, shall we say, web browsing situations where I want to be discreet . . . as in, not have certain URLs autocomplete when I'm trying to show my mother something on my computer. (-; (And I could care less if Macrohard things I'm a pervert, although I did make the mistake of using my current main e-mail account in IE somewhere, and ever since I've been getting quite a slew of rather lewd junk mail in my inbox. Oh well, gotta be a wee bit more careful, I suppose.)
In any case, this is one more reason I can't wait to get back to using a Macintosh! Only one month left to wait, woohoo!
IsraeliTerrorist:
quote:Um, sorry, that will not work. The "really" hidden folders CANNOT be viewed under DOS without first patching command.com. (Going into the code and stop whatever mechinism is hiding the files.)
An example of such folders would be
C:\windows\tempor~1\content.ie5
and
C:\windows\history\history.ie5
Without knowing the names of these files, you will never find them. These files also have subdirectories in them, which makes them particularly interesting. Go take a look.
--- End quote ---
Are the following "really hidden files" (or directories rather) as you said they were? These images were captured in Real Mode DOS using Screen Thief.
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