On 11 Apr 2002, at 20:19, by way of Douglas J Hunley boldly uttered:
> Sorry for the URL I didn't make it up, but the read it quite interesting.
> I've not confirmed any of it, but it sure sounds like something Microsoft
> would do.
>
> http://www.fuckmicrosoft.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml
[Warning: this is long]
Using Windows 2000, IE 5.5-SP2
Before clearing history, I searched for the described files.
1) None of the files were hidden, and even if they were, it would
hardly be rocket science to search for them. (I use 3rd party
utilities for file mgmt because Windows Exploder is pretty worthless)
(I note that some *directories* were hidden, ie "Local Settings".
But with a good file manager this isn't a big deal.)
2) They were all located in one of:
c:\documents and settings\Default User
c:\documents and settings\<local username>
Since previous versions of Windows didn't use the "documents
and settings" folder, it is logical that they would be saved
wherever the rest of IE's local user data is saved under the
convention used for that particular version of Windows - ie
"c:\windows\profiles".
3) Subdirectories under the main dirs above where index.dat files
were found included:
\Cookies\index.dat
\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\index.dat
\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\MSHist01<date str>\index.dat
\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat
("date str" is a string of chars that identifies the date of the
history record, in a format like "01200204110020413" for April
11, 2002 and presumably some timestamp)
I then cleared the cache and history from IE's tools menu, and
searched again for the files.
1) All directories named with "date str" except the most recent
one were deleted.
2) The following files were not touched, but had no obvious data
in them anyway:
\Default User\Cookies\index.dat
\Default User\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\index.dat
3) The following files appear to have had all of their data
cleared except a small fragment found in one file (a 400
char long URL that may have just triggered a bug in the
clearing routine):
\<local user>\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\index.dat
\<local user>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\
index.dat (wrapped)
4) The following files were not touched, but did contain history
data:
\<local user>\Cookies\index.dat
\<local user>\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\MSHist01<datestr>
index.dat (wrapped)
So to sum up, the only data remaining in these "hidden" files were:
A) Cookie data (IE doesn't claim to erase cookie data when clearing
the cache or history, neither do Netscape or Opera)
B) History for the very last IE session.
While item B is slightly annoying, and IE has plenty of other
security problems, someone is putting their "Chicken Little" hat on a
little bit early here.
Phil
--
Philip J. Koenig [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Electric Kahuna Systems -- Computers & Communications for the New Millenium
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