LAWTECH GURU BLOG by Jeff Beard

Some of the Best Software You Never Tried (Part 2) - Index.dat Suite

Continuing on in this series:

In Windows, one of the most difficult things to keep tidy is the group of index.dat files that Windows maintains. They often contain a history of web sites visited, files downloaded, searches conducted, etc., even after you clear IE's history and cache files via IE's options or the Internet Control Panel applet. Because these files are kept open by the Windows operating system, normal user and software methods cannot delete or clean them. They may also take up additional space as they grow.

Last year, Dennis Kennedy and I were discussing this issue, when he told me about the free Index.dat Suite. Per the application web site:

"Index.dat Suite is a rather unique program that allows you not only to delete the index.dat files, temporary internet files, temp files, cookies and history, but it also allows you to view the index.dat files on your system.

Index.dat Suite's current features include:

• View and delete History
• View and delete Temp files
• View and delete Recent Documents
• Delete Typed URL's
• Auto-generation of batch file to assist in deleting the index.dat files in DOS.
• Optional add to RunOnce registry key
• Optional deletion of swap file (9x users only)
• Optional defrag after file deletion
• Full application logging"