Stop Microsoft

All Things Microsoft => Microsoft Software => Topic started by: Rustyprof on 12 June 2005, 22:07

Title: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: Rustyprof on 12 June 2005, 22:07
I would like to delete the GIGABYTES of useless crap that Internet Explorer insists on hiding on my hard drive, but I would like to do it without sacrificing the history of sites visited because I use the history to revisit useful places I've been before.  Can anyone tell me what files I should keep to preserve the history when I erase the rest of the junk?
Title: Re: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 12 June 2005, 22:34
Don't use Internet Explore it's shit, use Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/central.html) or Opera (http://www.opera.com).

Read my signiture for fuck sake.

One vote for bin.
Title: Re: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: WMD on 12 June 2005, 22:38
One vote against bin.

The history aren't in content.ie5.  At most, keep the index.dat file.
Title: Re: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: Xeen on 12 June 2005, 22:46
1 vote for bin.

There just isn't a single reason or excuse to use Internet Explorer anymore, and anyone who does derserves all the shit that comes with it.

Rustyprof, empty your stuff by doing the regular clear cache, or by deleting the stuff manually. Then download firefox.
Title: Re: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: Refalm on 13 June 2005, 00:07
Quote from: Rustyprof
I would like to delete the GIGABYTES of useless crap that Internet Explorer insists on hiding on my hard drive, but I would like to do it without sacrificing the history of sites visited because I use the history to revisit useful places I've been before.  Can anyone tell me what files I should keep to preserve the history when I erase the rest of the junk?

Delete all system files, and when you re-installed your operating system, DO NOT USE INTERNET EXPLORER (unless you're downloading Firefox (http://www.getfirefox.com/) or Opera (http://www.opera.com/download/)).
Title: Re: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: Jenda on 14 June 2005, 00:01
1 vote against bin.
1 vote against IE.
1 vote for Firefox.
W/ Prefbar, one well aimed click deletes ALL your cache.
Title: Re: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: MrX on 14 June 2005, 06:31
Quote from: Rustyprof
I would like to delete the GIGABYTES of useless crap that Internet Explorer insists on hiding on my hard drive, but I would like to do it without sacrificing the history of sites visited because I use the history to revisit useful places I've been before.  Can anyone tell me what files I should keep to preserve the history when I erase the rest of the junk?


don't mind the other forum users getting mad at you. they just dont understand newbies.
we will need to have a 3rd party program. The windows file explorer.exe 'hides' the content.ie5 file from the user, because well, it is full of shit.

The program to be used is TrackerV3 and is available here:
http://www.trackerv3.com/

locate the 'search' on the bottom of the window and type in (you guessed it)
content.ie5
and usually more than one folder will come up. (esp. if you are using XP)
 I don't think it is possible to delete the content.ie5 folder itself (or is that the index.dat) when windows is running because it is protected, only the folders inside of it. the folder names inside should resemble jibberish like sl4xjx3 or some sort. delete all those and stuff.

we can also automate this task with a handy program called 'xen' and is available from here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mrx9000/downloads/xen.zip
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mrx9000/

run it and press 'x' or was it 'z' ? this will do all IE clean up, mru, defrag , scandisk all automated without user intervention.
=====

now that you've covered your tracks and cleaned up your system I recommed that you start with FireFox IE
http://firefoxie.net/
 because it is easy for newbies coming from internet explorer. and remember,
(http://toastytech.com/evil/iebad.gif)

hope this helps!
Mr X
Title: Re: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: Jenda on 14 June 2005, 21:47
Mr X, that is a museum-quality reply. That's the way to treat the poor Windosers.
Title: Re: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 14 June 2005, 22:45
Alright I'll tell you a way of doing this without using and  third party software, but you'll need to know some old DOS commands.

[OFFTOPIC]Is there anyone here who doesn't know any DOS commands?[/OFFTOPIC]

Look at your history, bookmark (add to your favorites) any sites you want to keep, go to tool, internet options, click on delete temporary Internet files, Clear cookies, and Clear History.

Now it depends on what operating system you have, Windows XP doesn't leave any personal information behind, even though the index files are still there the list of sites they contain will be gone so you can skip the next part, and just download and install Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/) or Opera (http://www.opera.com/).

Right this next bit depends on whether you have Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows NT or Windows 95/98 and you'll need to know a few DOS commands.

Now you need to get to DOS mode, If you have Windows 95/98 go to shut down and retart in DOS mode, if you have Windows ME you'll need to reboot from a boot disc, with Windows 2000/NT press Alt+Ctrl+Delete to get to task manager click on the processes tab click on explorer.exe in the list box and click End Process, go to file new process and type CMD.

Now you're in DOS mode, now change to the content.ie directory it't be in your Windows directory or documents and settings folder, can't find them?

Try this:
cd\
dir content.ie? /a/s

Now the will apear on the screen, use the deltree command to delete them if you're using Windows 96/98/ME or del on Windows NT/2000.

Repeate the above with history.ie? and cookies.

Restart the computer if you're using Windows 95/98/ME or type explorer to get Windows back to how it was if you use Windows NT/2000.

Now download and install Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/) or Opera (http://www.opera.com/).

Good luck.
Title: Re: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: Jenda on 15 June 2005, 22:26
Quote

Off topic:
Is there anyone here who doesn't know any DOS commands?

I know just a few.
Title: Re: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 16 June 2005, 00:28
I was asking that because many newer users don't remember MS-DOS and as a result have never needed to play around with the command line before.

I was just wondering if anyone here fits this description.

I don't use the command line anymore, I can see why it can be easier sometimes to use the command line for some tasks but in my opinion the command line interface is truely obsolete. I have never bothered to learn the UNIX command line even though I acept it's better than the Windows command line, I just can't be fucked why bother? the GUI way is so easy!
Title: Re: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: solemnwarning on 16 June 2005, 11:31
i learned a lot of dos commands, when i started using bash it took for ages to use ls not dir rm not del ect
Title: Re: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 16 June 2005, 22:01
The thing that gets me is the / is used instead of \ in unix, and am I the only person who prefers drive letters?
Lots of unix people slagged of DOS for using drive letters ut I liked them.
Title: Re: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: KernelPanic on 16 June 2005, 22:13
Quote from: Aloone_Jonez
The thing that gets me is the / is used instead of \ in unix, and am I the only person who prefers drive letters?
Lots of unix people slagged of DOS for using drive letters ut I liked them.


The problem was you could never rely on drive letters to be the same and had little control over their allocation.
Title: Re: How to delete content.ie5 material without losing the history?
Post by: adiment on 17 June 2005, 17:32
Quote from: MrX
don't mind the other forum users getting mad at you. they just dont understand newbies.
we will need to have a 3rd party program. The windows file explorer.exe 'hides' the content.ie5 file from the user, because well, it is full of shit.

The program to be used is TrackerV3 and is available here:
http://www.trackerv3.com/ (http://www.trackerv3.com/)

locate the 'search' on the bottom of the window and type in (you guessed it)
content.ie5
and usually more than one folder will come up. (esp. if you are using XP)
I don't think it is possible to delete the content.ie5 folder itself (or is that the index.dat) when windows is running because it is protected, only the folders inside of it. the folder names inside should resemble jibberish like sl4xjx3 or some sort. delete all those and stuff.

we can also automate this task with a handy program called 'xen' and is available from here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mrx9000/downloads/xen.zip (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mrx9000/downloads/xen.zip)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mrx9000/ (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mrx9000/)

run it and press 'x' or was it 'z' ? this will do all IE clean up, mru, defrag , scandisk all automated without user intervention.
=====

now that you've covered your tracks and cleaned up your system I recommed that you start with FireFox IE
http://firefoxie.net/ (http://firefoxie.net/)
 because it is easy for newbies coming from internet explorer. and remember,
(http://toastytech.com/evil/iebad.gif)

hope this helps!
Mr X

:thumbup::thumbup: