Temp Internet folder wont empty

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marge M
  • Start date Start date
M

Marge M

Whatever way I empty the Temporary Internet Files folder whether its through
Control Panel > Internet Options or manually slecting all files and
deleting there still appears to be hidden files in there. Clicking
properties reveals 30MB of files and folders but they are hidden and I cant
delete them. Even with show hidden files opted they are still hidden. This
used to be a problem for me in Win98 and WinME until I found a program
called Spider that cleaned the Index.dat file and deleted anything else in
the folder. Unfortunately Spider doesnt seem to be doing the job in XP.
Anyone know of a similar app that might do what I want or any other
suggestions for cleaning out the folder.

Thanks

Margery
 
You can/should also limit the size of the temp files.
Pick SETTINGS button next to delete files.
Set "Amount of space to use" to 1-2 mb.
 
Thanks for the suggestion David but it already is ticked and makes no
difference.

Margery

Tick Delete Offline Content in the dialog.
 
Mike, I now have it set to 1MB, cleaned up and rebooted yet the Properties
is still giving me 30MB worth of files and folders. Just to show Im not
totally insane and alone I found the Spider link that gives a briefing on
one guys research into the problem for older OS and IE versions
http://www.fsm.nl/ward/index.html Its a bit old but still seems to be
relevant no matter what settings I choose.

Margery
 
It's not ticked unless someone ticks it. And it has to be ticked everytime the dialog is open. I would confirm that this is not working.This will empty TIF.

It's a lot of hassle to do it the non correct way. So confirm.
 
OK apologies I will rephrase that: I have tried ticking the checkbox but it
makes no difference.

Margery

It's not ticked unless someone ticks it. And it has to be ticked everytime
the dialog is open. I would confirm that this is not working.This will empty
TIF.

It's a lot of hassle to do it the non correct way. So confirm.
 
Could you run attached file.

Type Regedit in Start Run
Navigate here
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserShell Folders

Find cache and edit the value (I just put 1 on the end) to this
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files1

Press Ctrl + Alt + Del, Process tab, find all explorer.exe in the list (usually only 1 but may be more) and select them and press Delete.

On the File menu - New Task (Run ...) - type Explorer

You now have a new tif folder and you can view (and delete) the contents of your old one. Reboot to kill index.dat if you want. Can you just have a look at the files and see if anything stands out as to why they are still there. They shouldn't be. Ticking that box should be enough. Does ticking that box work in other user profiles.

Repeat to put TIF back where it was and delete the temporary TIF folder we made.

Note Some programs that are open when explorer gets terminated can't be minimised by clicking on the taskbar button. Shutdown and restart the program (esp IE and OE)
 
Many thanks David. Ive done exactly as youve prescribed with success...sort
of.

The weight of the TIF was the Index.dat file. Even when visible ticking the
offline checkbox wasnt enough and I could only remove the dat file by
selecting and deleting it. I removed the 2nd TIF and rebooted and Properties
then said 32KB which I think is the size of a newly created Index.dat file.

The attached script ran ok and all paths seem to be as expected.

Ive been browsing now for some hours to see if it happens again. Ive cleaned
out the TIF, clicked the checkbox for offline content, rebooted etc., and
Properties are at 500KB already. For some reason the index.dat file is not
cleaning out when I clean out the TIF regardless of what settings I choose.

This might be OT but any idea why the index.dat file is hidden or is there a
quicker way to delete it as it looks like your method might be a regular
maintenance feature for me. Even when show hidden files is selected it
doesnt show itself. Is that normal? Its not a real problem but its something
I will have to keep an eye on as it might effect performance at some point.

Margery


Could you run attached file.

Type Regedit in Start Run
Navigate here
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Us

er Shell Folders

Find cache and edit the value (I just put 1 on the end) to this
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files1

Press Ctrl + Alt + Del, Process tab, find all explorer.exe in the list

(usually only 1 but may be more) and select them and press Delete.

On the File menu - New Task (Run ...) - type Explorer

You now have a new tif folder and you can view (and delete) the

contents of your old one. Reboot to kill index.dat if you want. Can you

just have a look at the files and see if anything stands out as to why

they are still there. They shouldn't be. Ticking that box should be

enough. Does ticking that box work in other user profiles.

Repeat to put TIF back where it was and delete the temporary TIF folder

we made
 
Index.dat doesn't shrink. It reuses it's space. If it grows to 1 meg then that the size it needs to be to cache the amount of files you browse. I reset it once a year.

That offline content box fixes the problems you read about with earlier versions. Or supposed too.
 
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