index.dat and Internet Cleanup

PC Mesh Internet and Disk Cleanup is an internet cleanup software to delete your internet tracks including the index.dat files, internet cache, cookies, internet history, etc.

Additionally PC Mesh Internet and Disk Cleanup includes disk cleanup functionality to ensure problem-free Windows operations.

Why do I need this internet cleaner software?
Because all your Internet activities, like the places you have visited, are logged into index.dat files and can be read by anyone. Click here to see a screenshot of an index.dat file before deleting with PC Mesh Internet and Disk Cleanup. This software is for you, if internet privacy is an issue for you. Click here to see a screenshot of an index.dat file after deleting with PC Mesh Internet and Disk Cleanup.

Besides PC Mesh Internet and Disk Cleanup clears Windows Temp directory, junk files, Recycle Bin and Recent Documents folder to ensure a problem-free Windows operation.

• View MS Internet Explorer index.dat files (Temporary Internet Files, Cookies and History) in ASCII and HEX formats. See a screenshot of index.dat reports window.
• Delete MS Internet Explorer index.dat files including Internet Cookies including Temporary Internet Files, Cookies and History.
• Erase MS Internet Explorer typed URLs, webforms (typed credit card number, passwords, etc.) and plugins.
  
• View and delete Mozilla cache, cookies and history.
• Clear Mozilla web forms (typed credit card number, passwords, etc.) and typed URLs.
• Delete Java cache and other temporary files.
• Clear the MRU (Most Recently Used) files list.
• Clear UserAssist area of the registry.
• Clear Windows pagefile (swapfile).
• Erase old prefetch files.
• Empty Recycle Bin.
• Erase Windows Run history.
• Erase Windows Search history.
• Delete the contents of Windows Temp folder.
• Search and delete files of specific extensions and/or files names.
• File shredding (secure deletion).

Because index.dat files are hidden by default. However if you want to make the index.dat files visible, you can do so in Windows explorer folder options.

index.dat files are protected system files. Therefore you can not delete index.dat files as long as Windows is running. That's why PC Mesh Internet and Disk Cleanup needs to restart your PC in order to delete index.dat files.

Although as soon as Windows starts, new clean index.dat files will be created, ready to record your steps.

Deleting index.dat files is quite safe and besides freeing up some disk space has no other effects.

No, because the contents of index.dat files are in close relationship with each other. Thus generally to delete the contents of any index.dat file, you have to delete all index.dat files at the same time.

The size of a clean Cookies index.dat file is 16 KB.
The size of a clean History index.dat file is also 16 KB.
When clean the size of Temporary Internet Files (Cache) index.dat file is 32 KB.

In rare cases when you have special Internet applications installed on your machine, you need to add 16 KB to the values above.

To read index.dat files launch PC Mesh Internet and Disk Cleanup Pro and click the Reports followed by MS Internet Explorer sidebars. The Report window will open. Click any of the ASCII or HEX buttons to read the contents of index.dat files.

HEX or binary view of index.dat file
ASCII or text view of index.dat file

That's exactly what index.dat files contain. Scroll to the right or down and look for readable characters like http://www.pcmesh.com These (URLs) are the internet tracks left from web browsing. You can simply copy the URLs and paste them in your browser address bar and hit Enter to visit that site.

File shredding means overwritting files a few times before deletion for security purposes. The idea is to make it hard or impossible to recover the files with forensic software.

You can use this feature to delete your sensitive files. However the deletion time will increase depending on your chosen number of overwrites.

Windows programs create their temporary files in the Temp folder. But sometimes they fail to delete them after use. An example would be those time when Windows stops responding and you push the Restart button on your PC.

UserAssist is an area of Windows registry where some user activity is logged. Windows doesn't provide any option of clearing this area other than manually editing the registry.

Yes, the syntax is: pidc.exe Param
Param can take 0 for Restart, 1 for Shut down and 2 for Power off.

Example: c:\progra~1\PCMesh\pidc\pidc.exe 0

PC Mesh Internet and Disk Cleanup runs on Windows XP and Windows Vista; and designed for Microsoft Internet Explorer and all of Mozilla-based browsers. Also you might find the notes on Windows Vista and index.dat files interesting.

PC Mesh Internet and Disk Cleanup Specifications