[Kento]

I heard about this free program called Spider.

http://www.fsm.nl/ward/

I thought i'd try it out. I was amazed at what it found. It found and deleted a library full of web addresses stored in hidden index.dat files. These web addresses aren't deleted when you clear the History through Internet Options. Try it yourself and see what it finds. I bet you'll be surprised.

Download Spider v1.16 350 KB. That's the version I used. After unzipping click on Spider.exe. When the program loads click on the Start Search button (magnifying glass) and see what it finds.

[WebHead]

You do know a batch file does the same thing?

[Shamrock]

What's a batch file? A little more info please

[WebHead]

You can use dos commands to make a batch file to delete all that stuff that program he recommended does. Just make a new notepad file on your desktop, open it, and type this. Make sure your using win95/98 too or it won't work. There is a work around for winme and win2000. I'll try to find the url for that.

deltree /y c:\windows\temp\*.*
deltree /y c:\windows\tempor~1\*.*
deltree /y c:\windows\cookies\*.*
deltree /y c:\windows\history\*.*

Click file, save as, and type whateveryouwant.bat, then click save. Now on your desktop is a batch file. Double click it to execute. It will delete everything in the temp, temporary internet, cookies, and history file, including all subdirectories. The only thing it won't delete though is the index.dat file. You can edit your autoexec.bat file and add the following line.

del /y c:\windows\cookies\index.dat

You can also just edit the autoexec.bat file with what I typed at the beginning too, but you would have to sit there while it deleted all that stuff before windows would load, and that could take awhile. Usually 15 minutes to an hour, depending on how long you surf the internet without rebooting. You can go here to understand a little better. She just edited her autoexec.bat file, but I wouldn't recommend it, if you surf for long periods at a time.

http://www.hardwarehell.com/bootclean.htm

[MacFromOK]

Usually 15 minutes to an hour, depending on how long you surf the internet without rebooting.

An hour? Unless you got a 286, you could deltree a 40 gig
hard drive in a minute or two. We're not talkin' overwrite
here, just clearing the FAT (file allocation table)...

[WebHead]

Is that through dos, or running a batch file through windows? It was a celeron 500 I tested it on, but I ran it on my machine, a amd 1333 with a raid array, and it still took close to 25 minutes. About 470mb I tried removing. This was done through dos, not a command prompt in windows. I know in windows it only took me about 30 seconds on my machine. Is there some secret command I don't know about?

[MacFromOK]

Hi Webhead,

OK, I just removed over 194 megs of stuff
from my autoexec.bat file in about 7 seconds.

However, I deltreed the directory, not the
files using *.*, so I'm guessing what's taking
so long is the sheer number of files and not
the total bytes.

Try the following from your autoexec.bat:


deltree /y c:\windows\temp
deltree /y c:\windows\cookies
deltree /y c:\windows\history
deltree /y c:\windows\tempor~1
md c:\windows\temp
md c:\windows\cookies
md c:\windows\history


Although you can use long filenames in a DOS box
by enclosing them in quotes, I haven't been able to
do so before Windows starts, so you can't create
the directory "Temporary Internet Files", but Windows
will automatically create it anyway.

Another thing you could do is make a separate batch
file to remove the files with wildcards and run it from
Windows startup, or put a shortcut on the desktop
and run it occasionally.

BTW, I'm running Win95 on an AMD K6III 450.

Cheers, Mac

[WebHead]

34 megs and it's still deleting away, about 5 minutes now, so just gave up. Not my machine so doesn't bother me.

I use 2000 now so can't test it on mine. The other computer is just junk, I know it's slow as can be. I use to own a k6-3 450 too, and it was never that slow. I did make the batch file on the desktop though, they just never run it, so figured it'd be better to just put in the autoexec file, but they didn't want to sit there all day. Oh well, guess they better start using the one on the desktop, or buy a decent machine.


Thanks!

[Davey7549]

Kento
You came through again! I suspected the auto complete info was hidden in dat files somewhere but I could never find them.
They are not only in the common places they also are hidden in other areas. I used the Spider program and found thousands of references dating back to when I first turned this machine on. Spider cleaned house and now I don't have to deal with those auto completes.
One thing though Spider would not remove all of my information
while I was logged into my user name. I had to go into default user and run it.
Thanks again.
Dave

[jimi]

kento, anybody, i get the following any ideas
spiderbite can not remove the hidden url

[Kento]

You're welcome Dave.

"You do know a batch file does the same thing?"

Yeah of course you can deltree the files webhead but Spider lets you see what's in those hidden index.dat files. I like to see what's in them before deleting them.

jimi, don't bother with spiderbite.exe. Just use spider.exe.

[Davey7549]

Kento
Yes I know I can create a batch for deletion and have for other items. I am like you though I like to see what I am deleting.
I prefer the spider.exe since I get the list for review and then can select a delete.
Dave

[Kento]

I know you know Dave. Actually my reply about the batch file was for webhead who asked me if I knew I could use one.

[WebHead]

I just posted as a FYI, wasn't trying to knock your post or anything. I did however use it in windows 2000, and it seems to work, so is a pretty good program. Only thing I didn't like, was that it wouldn't save my settings on what to scan, and what to delete. Have to keep going in and check all those boxes off.

[mole]

Don't know if any of you mentioned this in this thread or not, but Deltree is not "supported" (read included) in Win2K Pro. I have found that if you can obtain a copy from any Win9x PC and place it in a directory listed in the PATH on a Win2K PC and it will perform as always.

Please note: If you are not familiar w/ Deltree, be careful handling it as it is very good at what it does.

mole