Redundant HISTORY, COOKIES, & TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES

  • Thread starter Thread starter Scott.A.Smith
  • Start date Start date
S

Scott.A.Smith

The oddest thing happened to my system recently that I can neither
explain nor undo.


First, some background:


I. My TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES (TIF) is set to

C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files
%SystemRoot%\Temporary Internet Files

This is working just fine. No problems.


II. Other folders in which IE6 places HISTORY, COOKIES, etc. are as
follows:

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\History
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\History

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Cookies
%USERPROFILE%\Cookies

These are working fine. No problems.


III. My TEMP and TMP variables are set to

C:\WINDOWS\Temp
%SystemRoot%\Temp

This is working just fine. No problems.



Now, here is the problem: I have discovered brand new COOKIES,
HISTORY, and TIF folders located in my TEMP folder. Here is why this is
odd:

1. There are no files in the tree structure of these folders, hidden
or otherwise.

2. These folders do not get modified, in any way, by the system from
day to day.

3. The system continues to place TIF, COOKIES, and HISTORY as
indicated above, that is in

C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files

%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\History

%USERPROFILE%\Cookies

4. There are *no* keys in the REGISTRY that point to these new,
unexplained folders, which are

C:\WINDOWS\Temp\Cookies
%SystemRoot\Temp\Cookies

C:\WINDOWS\Temp\History
%SystemRoot\Temp\History

C:\WINDOWS\Temp\Temporary Internet Files
%SystemRoot\Temp\Temporary Internet Files

5. I CANNOT delete these folders. When I try to, the system gives me
the following error message:

Cannot delete index.dat: It is being used by another person or
program.
Close any programs that might be using the files and try again.


Remember, as points (1) through (4) indicate, there appears to be
*nothing* pointing to these folders. So, here are my questions:

A. What is this all about?
B. How can I get rid of these folders/directories?


Thanks!!

P.S. This all happened *after* I ran a registry program called
REGISTRY FIRST AID to get rid of "dead" registry keys.
 
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