At 11:08 AM 1/16/02 -0500, John O'Flynn wrote the following: >Thanks for the very complete answer to my question about CacheSentry. I >take it then that you feel it's a worthwhile prog to run, though nobody >else seems to have it :-) > >But you have raised another question: you recommend deleting certain >things as part of weekly housekeeping, and Barry has joined in with an >even longer list that he deletes daily (though he implies that this MAY >be to keep the FBI off his track :-> ) > >Some of it I can understand, but why empty cache and recycle bin? >(except maybe as a quick-fix because you just discovered you're running >out of space). Doesn't this just defeat their purpose? Wouldn't it be >better to set a sensible max on them and then let them take care of >themselves (maybe with a little help from CacheSentry), and de-frag them >along with everything else on Saturday night or whenever you do it? >Aren't they designed so that when they reach their max, the oldest stuff >gets pushed out as new stuff comes in? > >As for Barry's list -- why bother deleting history, Barry? If you >really are concerned about privacy, you'll have to do a lot more than >that, as Gerry and Peter suggest. And if you dump the useful cookies >along with the useless ones, you just have more aggravation getting them >back. I use AdAware to make sure people haven't planted things I don't >want. > >Forgive me if these are elementary questions, but they aren't elementary >for me (and I probably speak for other lurkers out there, too).
John, Like I said, I use something similar but I delete the INDEX.DAT with a secure file erasing program. In fact, I always delete "telltale" files with a secure file erasure. Most of this depends upon how much "surfing" and/or downloading you do as well as how many programs you install/delete. The more of this you do the faster the recycle bin fills, and the more space is taken up by cookies, temporary files, and temporary web pages including graphics. I happen to do a lot of "surfing" and downloading so weekly cleanup is just fine for me. It also fits within my backup schedule. I just follow a set routine every Sunday. I have for years. For me, the recycle bin is the "dumbest" item placed on a PC desktop. When I delete a file I want it gone, zapped, bye-bye, vaporized, sent to the bit bucket, and any other term/phrase you can come up with. If I want to reinstall it I have it on backup. Caches are great for shared resources like many users on a LAN. They are also great to speed up subsequent access to the same data but how often do I use the same data? My main interest is in searching so a cached web page doesn't do me much good at all. Cookies are another good idea turned bad. Just about every site now wants to place a cookie on my PC when I visit their web site. In fact some of the sites place a cookie for every page I visit. Just a bunch of useless clutter. I tried turning cookies off entirely in both IE and Netscape except some of the sites are so devious I can't even visit without allowing a cookie to be placed. Entirely unacceptable by me so I'm glad to delete all cookies at week end. I want to control what is happening as much as possible on my PC so I rarely let Windows "take care of anything" that I can control. Just about any "Windows 101" class would tell users to do: 1. Windows update 2. v*rus update 3. disk cleanup 4. scan disk 5. disk defragmenting See Maintaining Your Windows 98 System http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/pctech/content/17/16/os1716.001.html -- Gerry Boyd ============= PCWorks Mailing List ================= Don't see your post? Check our posting guidelines & make sure you've followed proper posting procedures, http://pcworkers.com/rules.htm Contact list owner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribing and other changes: http://pcworkers.com =====================================================
