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Thread ID: 19572	2002-05-18 11:45:00	Essential reading for computer privacy	Guest (0)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
49455	2002-05-18 11:45:00	Over the past couple of months there have been various discussions regarding 'features' of the temporary internet folders, internet history, etc and protecting one's privacy. A number of people know that I am a fan of Spider, a program that cleans out these folders, ridding the system of unnecessary bulk and eliminating evidence of surfing habits. It has often puzzled me why I sometimes have to run it two or three times to completely clean the index.dat file. Well, now I know why. The answer is at: www.****microsoft.com I strongly recommend everyone who is concerned with maintaining and controlling their privacy while using their computer to read this entire article. It applies to all Windows users who use Internet Explorer, Outlook and Outlook Express, as well as those who have Fast Find enabled on their machine. Even if, like me, you don't have anything to hide, you would still benefit from following the advice and clearing out *a lot* of unnecessary rubbish accumulating without your knowledge. For all of us who have ever had problems with scandisk or defrag restarting due to disk writes, I was amazed to find out that one cause could be because Find Fast was indexing your hard drive in the background. The article explains why we are better off without Fast Find and how to get rid of it. I'm sure other people will find this article as informative and interesting as I did.	Guest (0)
49456	2002-05-18 12:56:00	Well done Susan B a very interesting site.	Guest (0)
49457	2002-05-18 13:07:00	A very interesting article. Once I get the thumping sound out of my head, I will have a more detailed read of it. By the way, did hubby buy you that new 21' flat screen monitor or did he settle for the new toaster from Farmers.	Guest (0)
49458	2002-05-18 13:36:00	Susan - I was going to post a query about a virus scan showing scanning thousands of temporary internet files, after I had just cleaned them all out, plus cookies. I wondered where the files were hidden that were being scanned. Now I know - thanks a lot. EC	Guest (0)
49459	2002-05-19 02:17:00	Hi Susan Found that very helpful. Being a bit of an amateur DOS-head myself I had identified and viewed the contents of all the index.dat and temporary internet files using Ztree (which is not bound to slavishly obey Microsoft's wishes). Unfortunately the one wish that it does obey won't let all of the index.dat files be deleted via Ztree so it is necessary to resort to DOS. Some time ago I made up a boot disk with a batch file routine that deletes all of the unwanted files and I run this before I run scandisk & defrag. It seemed pointless to me to defrag a disk full of unwanted data as this would just extend the defrag time. I also get rid of all of these files before creating any back up (Ghost) image files. The sequence I use is to delete temporary internet files and history using IE tools then reboot with the disk in let it rip. The whole process could be automated for every boot by loading the batch file on the HD and calling it from the autoexec.bat file but I don't have that much to hide. I note that the author of the article makes passing reference to use of the auto exec.bat file but doesn't take that option any further. He/she recommends use of proprietary products instead. I have Historykill on one of my Win2K machines and it seems quite effectiive though I doubt that it can deal with email archives. I would caution anybody using Outlook not to delete their *.pst file though as this will delete all of their current email records. Cheers Billy 8-{)	Guest (0)
49460	2002-05-19 02:46:00	Hi Thats creepy. Why on earth would Bill want to have these records, apparently, prmanently stored on our computers. To labour a point, to what end. I guess these files include such things as any viruses that have the ability to replicate and copy your address book, ads, spyware, etc. Could you post that batch file Billy or alternatively are there any utilities that will do the job for those of us who are not DOS jockies. Cheers Murray P PS. Well done again Susan.	Guest (0)
49461	2002-05-19 05:06:00	Hi Susan, I'm an older person, like over 50, I went to the web address you mentioned, and was really amazed. I copied and pasted the info into a word document to read it at my leisure. About defrag and scan disk, I've been having trouble with these for a while now, I can do a defrag and a standard disk scan. But not a through scan, when I do a Through scan always something working in the background, so I have to start computer in safe Mode which is annoying, even though I do them like fortnightly they seem to take forever like up to 3-4 hours, with nothing that I no of running. As to the reference' Find Fast, is this the same as' Fast Find', which is what I have that I can find. I'm using a HP Pavilion 6700 computer, 192mb RAM, Windows ME, (no jokes now please I hate MS), but have to put up with it. The Riddler Says to put in a BOOT disk for Windows ME to boot to Dos. (Index 3.1 Paragraph 3). What is a 'BOOT DISK', and should I have one, I got 3 CD's with my computer 1.5 years ago, one is 'Application Recovery'; the other two are 'System Recovery'. No 'BOOT Disk'. Can one create a 'BOOT DISK'? I properly could follow the instructions for the removable of 'Find Fast' but as for the rest it's a little over my old noggin. By the way do computers still require DOS, I heard refference sometime ago that someone deleted DOS from there computer, mybe I was mistaken. Any help please. merlin :-)	Guest (0)
49462	2002-05-19 05:50:00	Good one susan - most imformative and interesting site - i too like merlin with read it further at my leisure - Thanks	Guest (0)
49463	2002-05-19 09:30:00	Hi Murray I will post the batch file soon, but first I need to make it more user friendly as at the moment it is set up to require enter to be pressed at every step. I did that for my own interest so that I could stop part way through if I wanted and see what had been deleted. Also, since it is a universal jobby for Win9x and Win2K (and probably NT & XP I wouldn't mind betting since they both have the same base as W2K) it has some personalised parameters that need to be converted to wildcards or equivalent. I would want to do that and check that it doesn't do anything stupid before I post. I'm a DOS batch file tinkerer rather than a Guru so I like to test before I commit mayhem on others! There are some interesting DOS parameters in the document Susan referenced that I don't understand the need for too, but in batch files there's always more than one way to skin the cat as the saying goes so I'll sort it out when I get time and post it with the appropriate title. You won't miss it if you are a Press F1 regular. Cheers Billy 8-{)	Guest (0)
49464	2002-05-19 10:13:00	Hi merlin (& Billy) That system recovery disk is probably a boot disk of sorts if your computer is set to boot to the CD drive. Would pay to make a windows one with CD drivers. Do this (I don't have ME so may be a little different): Get a floppy disk ready. Go- Start> Settings> Control Panel> Add Remove Programs> Start Up Disk. Pop the disk in the slot and hit the create Disk button. Follow any instructions. To use the disk put it in your drive when you boot up your computer. You'll end up at A:\ prompt type C: <enter> (where C: is the drive windows is installed or root) and a way you go. HTH Thanks for that Billy. re read the article and had a closer look at my files. All the index.dat and descktop.ini are visible to me. Have altered them and made the index.dat (.xl work book) password protected. It might just work you know?? That batch file would be nice though. I'm about to format and reinstall so would be great to have something to do it auomatically (they'll all be back in all their sneeky glory, won't they) Cheers Murray P	Guest (0)
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