Index.dat - Erase Index.dat files

What is an index.dat file?

Three index.dat files reside in the following locations: Cookies\index.dat, History\History.IE5\index.dat, and Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat. Therefore, each of Internet Explorer's primary folders (or directories) - Cache, Cookies and History - uses an indexing technique to maintain information. Basically, a copy of the contents of the folders remains in that folder. The software continues to keep those records even after you have deleted the contents of those folders. These files can be very difficult to find and erase. If you are in the Windows folder, even with Show hidden files and folders active, these files are not visible and cannot be found if you do a search for these files. The reason that these files are so invisible is that they are not just hidden, but they also have been designated as "system" files. System files and folders are treated differently in DOS and Windows and are effectively cloaked from casual searches.

You will love Smart Protector - Internet Eraser for automatic erasing of Index.dat files and all other traces of your Internet activity.

If you want to try to manually erase index.dat files, the following information provides more specific information for their locations.

For Cookies and for Cache, the Index.dat files are basically URL entries and pointers to the associated real files. URL is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator, which is an informal phrase for an Internet Address. For History, no files are referenced (this is the collection of URL entries used for AutoComplete and for controlling the highlighting of imbedded links on the Web pages). All three contain the actual URL plus date/time stamps and reference counts. On a Windows 9x computer these files are located in the following locations:

\WINDOWS\Cookies\index.dat
\WINDOWS\History\index.dat
\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\index.dat
\WINDOWS\Cookies\index.dat
\WINDOWS\History\index.dat
\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\index.dat.

In Windows 2000 and Windows XP there are several "index.dat" files in these locations:
\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Cookies\index.dat
\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\index.dat
\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\************\index.dat
\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Local
\Settings\History\History.IE5\************\index.dat
\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Local
\Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat

Except index.dat cookies and history, other traces of your Internet activity exist like Temporary Internet Files, such as caches and other media files; Recent Documents list; the dropdown URL list from IE; URL Autocomplete, and so forth. SmartProtector deletes all of these files. Click the following link to see how to delete the temporary internet files.