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Microsoft's secret record of every website visited on your PC!

en.wikipedia.org — Windows creates invisible, undeletable files listing all the websites the PC has visited. Not only every URL but also all of the email that has been sent or received through Outlook or Outlook Express is also being logged. This information is untouched by clearing history, internet cache folder and temporary internet files. Link shows how to remove

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  • pobster, on 10/12/2007, -8/+78This is not 'news' as in new, but it was news to me and I think many other people will be interested/concerned. Google 'index.dat' for more info, there are several utilities around for reading the contents of these files. Everyone interested in maintaining their privacy when using windows needs to know about this!
    • theblackgecko, on 10/12/2007, -9/+193Everyone interested in maintaining privacy switched away from IE a long time ago.
    • bpinard, on 10/12/2007, -175/+37...and switched to OS X.
    • Halifax1, on 10/12/2007, -20/+37Exactly. People who are seriously concerned about their privacy and whatever they may do online switched to Firefox a long time ago. Forget IE and it's index.dat.
    • PepeGSay, on 10/12/2007, -107/+13My mind has a record of every site I've ever visited and every email i've sent. Is my mind an invasion of privacy? What a retarded description.

      This is something that is good to know about, but invoking the conspiracy B.S. is way overboard.
    • gizmo490, on 10/12/2007, -47/+82@bpinard
      When are mac users going to accept that OSX is not the be all and end all when it comes to security

      http://www.itweek.co.uk/vnunet/news/2161483/apple-patches-26-security-flaws
      http://digg.com/security/Hijacking_a_Macbook_in_60_Seconds_or_Less

      Two articles on mac security vulnerabilities from _today_.
      Your computer does not become secure just because no one attacks it.
    • vetipc, on 10/12/2007, -5/+49Why are you insisting on privacy? You must be hiding something! ...informing the three-letter-agency...
    • cartwheels, on 10/12/2007, -9/+22@vetipc:

      weeoow weeoow! 4chan party van!
    • Dakoman, on 10/12/2007, -57/+14@gizmo490

      when are you going to realise that this is apple's 4th security update THIS YEAR. we dont get 40 a month like you windows users.
    • omarqaz7, on 10/12/2007, -7/+11"This problem has been fixed in Internet Explorer 7."

      Nice one.
    • hutch113, on 10/12/2007, -5/+41@Dakoman

      gizmo490 is not saying that Windows is the most secure. Gizmo is simply stating that Mac OSX has it's flaws too. Just because it has fewer flaws and fewer exploited flaws does not mean that it is the best thing ever. It is a great Operating System for many people, and so is Windows XP and the different flavors of Linux. Most Windows users don't really hate Macs, they just hate the Apple fanboys creaming over Steve Jobs and anything that Apple does.
    • dogshaft, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Microsoft's page would've said, "This integral feature has been removed in Internet Explorer 7."
    • aptget, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14Quote from Pirates of Silicon Valley:

      "When did this stop being a business and start being a religion?"

      Spoken by the guy that played Steve Ballmer.
    • Sefirosu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18I'm a Mac user mostly and this somewhat "fanatically religious" worship some people have with their platform irritates me and I'm sure I am not alone.

      Come on people, use what's good for you, forcing people to use or believe in something has never been a good idea.

      And none of these systems is totally secure, there are flaws. Just get over it and accept it, that's a part of computing.
    • djlosch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4this article is stupid and incredibly old. i remember reading it in a jolly roger labeled article years ago when winxp first came out. no surprise...

      in other news, my anti-spam random letters were MSWGA. coincidence? while i dont believe in coincidences, it's definitely possible (only like 26^5 if they use straight alpha characters)
    • alwaysmc2, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6hutch113, you said it exactly how it is.
      "Just because it has fewer flaws and fewer exploited flaws does not mean that it is the best thing ever. It is a great Operating System for many people, and so is Windows XP and the different flavors of Linux. Most Windows users don't really hate Macs, they just hate the Apple fanboys creaming over Steve Jobs and anything that Apple does."
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Uh, no. This is ***** of the highest order. Index.dat stores nothing but local profile preferences and has nothing to do with your browsing habits. Nor does it relay any of this information to any external entity as evidenced by logs generated by Ethereal.

      Marked as INACCURATE.
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Wow.... INCREDIBLE amounts of misinformation about in this thread about index.dat! That file is unique to each individual user account and stores local profile settings such as desktop icon placement, wallpaper preferences, theme settings, font settings, and other such settings specific to local profile accounts. It is *NOT* a privacy concern as NONE of this info is relayed to any external entity (check Ethereal logs), and ***** SHOULD NOT be deleted!!!!!!!!!!!!

      FWIW, no you do NOT have to be logged in under safe mode to manipulate it, but I wouldn't recommend doing so anyway. You just have to be logged in as an account which hasn't logged on since the computer has been powered on. Index.dat locks itself open once that respective user has logged on. In order to modify that user's index.dat file, you have to reboot and log in as a different (admin) user.

      Jeez people if you have NO ***** CLUE what a file does? You really shouldn't be screwing around with it.

      This article can be potentially cause harm to PC users and shouldn't be spread around as some sort of "Security concern". The tech at MS are probably laughing at everyone who's freaking out and deleting their index.dat file!!!
  • iSEPIC, on 10/12/2007, -79/+12Yes, this is how employers catch the "not so bright" and how moms catch you too.
    Only a fool would think this is not on other operating systems - you have been warned you p0rn surfing addicts!
    • threepio, on 10/12/2007, -11/+55I would have thought the thick glasses and the hairy palms would have been the simpler tip-off.
    • paulieb13, on 10/12/2007, -1/+60I've been shaving my palms for years now and never knew the cause of it. Even my doctor wouldn't tell me, he would just giggle and make notes in my chart. Thanks threepio.
    • Darwinian, on 10/12/2007, -12/+9Safari Private Browsing Ftw.

      A very interesting article, and something I'm very not happy about. No matter how hard Microsoft tries to change their image (and I want them to because I like them!) I think small things like this may be unearthed in the future to trouble their business.

      A worthy and interesting article of Digg.
    • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Dr. Harry Palms - Microsoft Security Specialist
    • Wrathernaut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Aaah, the joys of being a married adult and being able to bookmark all the sites you enjoy. Understanding wife. Priceless.
  • Nahor, on 10/12/2007, -22/+57"Everyone interested in maintaining their privacy when using windows needs to know about this!"

    Um... I hate to be the one to break it to you, but... nah nevermind. Good luck trying to maintain your privacy on a windows box.
  • reddevil3, on 10/12/2007, -3/+47If I'm not mistaken index.dat only stores sites you visited using Internet Explorer right?
    • millixaw, on 10/12/2007, -5/+139If Microsoft ever read my index.dat, they'd only find one URL...

      http://www.mozilla.org
    • terinjokes, on 10/12/2007, -25/+6If microsoft ever read my index.dat they would find
      msn.com (or whatever was the default homepage of IE)
      getfirefox.com
      windowsupdate.microsoft.com

      of coarse my windows computer blow up a year and a half ago
    • DevilDogs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Actually, I used the utility mentioned, and found references to FILES on my drive, not just web sites. So unfortunately, it appears every Windows user may be exposed.
    • webcrumb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"http://www.mozilla.org"

      I know I'll get downed for nit-picking, but it would have to be mozilla.com now. :)
  • smartydebater, on 10/12/2007, -4/+47Firefox still has caches data. But when you do Control+Shift+Delete it actually deletes the files. The problem with any data that gets written to your hard drive is, when you delete it, usually it can be completely restored. You have to overwrite the data to be in the clear.

    But for firefox you can get extensions like Stealther, which prevent firefox from writing any cache, etc... I find Stealther very useful. So I guess the name of the game is, don't use Internet Explorer.
    • rarkai, on 10/12/2007, -5/+44"So I guess the name of the game is, don't use Internet Explorer"

      I cannot believe people still resist this notion.
    • qvtqht, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17Thanks for reminding me about that keyboard shortcut.
    • smartydebater, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The point of this story isn't to say Microsoft is spying on your computer. The point is that, everything you do in internet explorer and outlook express can be easily traced if anyone hacked or stole your computer. So, use Firefox, and gmail. (But having e-mails stored on googles server is a whole different ballgame!)
  • PSPDS, on 10/12/2007, -87/+6microsoft is the hackers not us!
  • PowerCow, on 10/12/2007, -26/+11dont go screwing up my forensic work
  • thestorey, on 10/12/2007, -61/+3***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
  • ricodued, on 10/12/2007, -32/+16This record isn't for Microsoft, nor does Microsoft ever get to read it. Plus it's fixed in IE7, so it's not like Microsoft /wants/ to read your history.

    Inaccurate.
    • gh02t, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12The concern isnt so much that Microsoft will be reading it. It's more that index.dat isn't widely publicized and anybody who knows about it can read.
  • deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -9/+35Welcome to 1998.
  • J6stik, on 10/12/2007, -13/+27"index.dat is a file used by the Internet Explorer web browser."

    It doesn't effect me, then.
    • oakj423, on 10/12/2007, -54/+15swell, then why write a comment about it

      no one cares that you don't use IE
    • DoctorShim, on 10/12/2007, -7/+23I do. It's encouraging.
    • oakj423, on 10/12/2007, -33/+7if someone could honestly explain why i'm being dugg down for that comment, and why comments like the one above are appreciated i would genuinely appreciate it
    • J6stik, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16My comment isn't appreciated, it has +1 digg, which is the default (no change). The reason mine wasn't dugg down is probably because mine was in response to the story, yours was only complaining about a comment.
    • Yorn, on 10/12/2007, -7/+22Actually, I have to agree with the guy complaining. It's a lot like the pro-Linux bias that Slashdot had when it was still new. I'd post legitimate and informative comments about Windows security and see my posts modded down "-1, Winblows" while one-liner reponses to it, "or, you could just use *nix." would be "+5, Insightful".

      Digg is no different, it'll take some time before people realize that not everyone has the option of using Firefox/Mozilla, especially in the corporate world. In some places, like web development, you're required to have and use both to make sure your apps run right. I think it was likely your comment was modded down simply because you insulted a Firefox user who probably thinks using Firefox is like owning a hybrid car.

      In either case, you're both probably being smug.
    • stonr, on 10/12/2007, -11/+11Dont forget the Digg Mac bias Yorn.

      ( -48, M$ troll )
    • oakj423, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8^^ Yorn
      I totally agree I have to develop for IE, firefox, safari, etc. I just feel like sometimes people are just asses to be asses and mod others down. having said that, i'm sure this post will get nailed even harder, but life goes on.

      it's like on woot.com. evey night at midnight, 100 people make the comment "not for me", "too expensive", etc when insightful, useful comments get buried amongst the filler.

      fyi...i don't use IE either, but i didn't feel like writing to the world about it. (i do realize that i was complaining about other just commenting for their own good, and i have just done so but i wanted to make a point)
  • benlevon, on 10/12/2007, -39/+12MIRROR

    Index.dat
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Jump to: navigation, search

    In the Microsoft Windows operating system, index.dat is a file used by the Internet Explorer web browser. The index.dat file functions as an active database, which runs as long as Windows is active. It functions as a repository of redundant information, such as web URLs, search queries, and recently opened files. Its role is similar to that of an index file in the field of databases, where a technique called "indexing" stores the contents of a database in a different order to help speed up query responses. Similarly, when the Autocomplete function is enabled in Internet Explorer, every web address visited is sorted in the index.dat file, allowing the Internet Explorer to attempt to find an appropriate match when a user types in an edit field. Separate index.dat files exist for the Internet Explorer history, cache, and cookies.

    Note: .dat is a commonly used filename extension for a number of different types of data files (a file that is not human-readable or that does not hold a document-based binary file). Thus one might well encounter a file named index.dat that is not a part of the operating system or of Internet Explorer.

    [edit]

    Controversy

    Internet privacy groups contend that the use of index.dat files in the Windows operating system is an invasion of privacy. One of their main complaints is that the index.dat file cannot be deleted or erased easily, because it is always open when Windows is running. Open or "locked" files cannot be deleted in any way.

    Another contention is that the operating system gives a false sense of security. Even after the user has cleared the internet cache folder, temporary internet files folder, and history folder, the index.dat files on Windows continue to store all visited web addresses and cookies and some temporary files. Some people state that this will eventually cause the index.dat files to grow very large, while the average user remains unaware of what its going on.

    However, Microsoft representatives have pointed out that the index.dat files can optionally be deleted by advanced users, when Windows is rebooted in safe mode. Because Windows is not active in safe mode, the standard "del" command on the index.dat file or the "deltree" command on the directory containing it will delete the file.

    In addition, there is software available that will delete these files for less advanced users.

    This problem has been fixed in Internet Explorer 7.


    [edit]

    Deleting Index. dat files

    * Turn on your computer.
    * Press F8 or F5 for advanced boot options.
    * Click safe mode with command prompt.
    * Log in as Administrator.
    * Enter

    del index.dat /s

    * Restart your computer.

    [edit]

    • ccanni1028, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I don't really think Wikipedia is going to die from a Digg link.
  • finowns, on 10/12/2007, -31/+6Whats wrong with knowing where your computer has been?
  • historyfool24, on 10/12/2007, -50/+8hahahahaha another reason why i love my Mac
    • FreakingHound, on 10/12/2007, -48/+16your mac is *****. macs are for idiots.
    • oakj423, on 10/12/2007, -17/+19why does every post always end up in a mac/pc/linux argument
    • bakagaigin, on 10/12/2007, -16/+24Just to..even it out...LINUX SUXORSSSS
    • sfultong, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3because there's a friggin' war going on here!

      who says a war where people die is more significant than a war where popular sentiments die?

      popular sentiments keep our country running (theoretically)
    • npinski, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9the reason why i love digg is because both "hahahaha winblows sucks, i love my mac" and "macs blow and are for fairies" kinds of comments get dugg down majorly.

      We may be biased but at least we don't tolerate douchebags supporting our point of view
  • punkrockxtian, on 10/12/2007, -3/+42Sorry if this looks like spam but here's a nice Index.dat viewer for those curious...
    http://www.stevengould.org/software/indexdatspy/index.html
    • benlevon, on 10/12/2007, -59/+4Mod parent down.

      We don't need spam on our digg!
    • Tweekster, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Modded the anti spam mod down and modded the GP up :)
      because the link is useful
    • twertyto, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Thanks for the link. I was justing coming to the comment section to ask about this.
    • hiyel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8you can just use notepad too...
  • deadlogic, on 10/12/2007, -5/+16opening up the index.dat file is how i was able to bust a kid at school looking at beastiality websites.
    • bluebri, on 10/12/2007, -2/+39It's not beastiality. It's interspecies erotica. ;D
    • deadlogic, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8"It's not beastiality. It's interspecies erotica. ;D"

      i'm sorry, i stand corrected.
    • thestorey, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3clerks 2!
    • wtfdaemon, on 10/12/2007, -26/+9Way to go. Proud of busting kids for looking at interspecies pr0n. What a f**king waste of time your life must be. Snitch.
    • kindrobot, on 10/12/2007, -16/+6narc
    • LouisFarrakan, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3Praise be to Allah!! "Bestiality" has only one "a."
  • Wooism, on 10/12/2007, -10/+14Inaccurate! You can't refer to something as "undeletable" and then state "this is not you delete it". wtf grammar noob!
  • gnukix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I'd be *VERY* cautious of doing a del /s index.dat -- this could very well delete an identically named, but innocuous file.
  • lagnut, on 10/12/2007, -4/+26I only surf pr0n on my dads work-computer. that way i'm always safe.
    • punkrockxtian, on 10/12/2007, -5/+19You sure are safe, untill your dad loses his job of course.
  • astrosmash, on 10/12/2007, -22/+4You're citing wikipedia as your only source? You suck!

    Every word in that article is wrong.

    • maninblac1, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I don't know if it's wrong, but it's definately suspect.
  • Tuscanspeed, on 10/12/2007, -15/+6It's amazing what's considered news worthy.

    Welcome to Windows, circa 1994.
  • Tweekster, on 10/12/2007, -7/+9I always knew that file existed, but i figrued IE purged the contents of it. That would be the expected behavior. Does anyone in the world need any more convincing that IE absolutely sucks in every capacity as a web browser.
    That program is pure garbage .
  • gruvsf, on 10/12/2007, -23/+7I didn't realize that Wikipedia is a source for news
    • sinfony, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13Maybe you should visit their front page sometime, jackass.
  • riklomas, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20"Windows creates invisible, undeletable files"

    "Link shows how to remove"

    Hmmm... they're not *that* undeletable then...
    • punkrockxtian, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8He was referring to the fact that you can't delete them logged on as a normal user. You need to be in safe mode logged on as Admin in order to delete it.
    • XAsmodeaNX, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3There's a difference between deleting and removing. Deleting is a function of the OS, removing is OS independent.
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No, you don't have to be logged in safe mode. You just have to be logged into an account which hasn't previously logged in since the computer's been turned on.

      Once you log in as a user account, the index.dat file is locked open. You have to reboot and log in as a different (admin) account in order to perform any action upon the index.dat file. So once and for all - you ABSOLUTELY DO NOT have to be logged in under "safe mode" in order to modify index.dat.
  • Sithlrd, on 10/12/2007, -33/+4http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore/

    • sinfony, on 10/12/2007, -8/+25Thanks, but I'll keep my $2000 and just use Firefox on the very secure Windows machine I'm running on.
    • iSEPIC, on 10/12/2007, -23/+5Sithlrd

      is

      a

      L A M E R
    • nazsco, on 10/12/2007, -6/+7and i will keep the $2000 and raise you $200 and just use firefox my very secure ubuntu machine.

      ooops, i take that $200 back... like anyone here paid for windows.
  • dmron, on 10/12/2007, -16/+14Reason number 17 billion why you'd be a fool to even touch IE with a 10 foot pole...
  • maninblac1, on 10/12/2007, -15/+5Uh, i can find said index.dat file, i can't however find anything worth finding. Wordpad, Notepad, Hexedit, nothing of significance. Maybe because i turned the indexing service off? Because it makes windows run faster?....hmmmm....performance windows users don't even use the indexing service. Why do you need autocomplete, we have bookmarks right? As said before, it's amazing what's news worthy, and most of all....worthless news.
    • kindrobot, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2*applause*

      Thank you.
    • Continuum, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3If you do not know what the indexing service is, you shouldn't be shutting it off. And if you do not know what index.dat is, you should be trying to delete/edit it.
      I think with your comment it is clear you fit into both of these catagories.
    • maninblac1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The indexing service provides a list/database of files (among other things) so that windows search will perform faster, this is not it's only task.

      As for deleting it, i don't care, i never tried to, i wanted to look at it, and what it contained, typical programs to do this is notepad or wordpad, or any decent hexeditor, and if you don't understand how to use a hexeditor, well you shouldn't be telling others what they should and shouldn't do with computers.
    • nazsco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4> If you do not know what the indexing service is, you shouldn't be shutting it off.

      weird! that's exactly how i decide wich service should or not run in windowsXP
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You are a glittering gem of colossal stupidity. Go ahead and ***** your system up since you haven't a CLUE what you're doing.
  • D14BL0, on 10/12/2007, -15/+3Odd. I opened up my index.dat and found no such records. At all.

    I was also able to delete it, straight from Explorer. No problem at all.

    Flagged as innaccurate.
    • zcreem, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10You deleted the wrong index.dat, and there are more than one, and you can't delete them from within explorer unless you are admin under safe mode, you can't even see the bloody file from explorer, visable from totalcmd but still not deletable.

      FF where is your little horde of surfing history?
    • punkrockxtian, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Index.dat is a common filename used by many apps, it's just a matter of finding the right one.
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Once again, you don't have to be in safe mode to modify index.dat. There is a separate index.dat file for each user account, each one stores profile information about things such as desktop icon placement, wallpaper preferences, etc....

      You'd be a fool to go ***** w/ that file.
  • thenativeraver, on 10/12/2007, -9/+6This is as old as jesus.
    If there really was such a person.
    • maninblac1, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7Haha, probably not that old, jesus would have come up with a miracle operating system and none of us would be using this crap.
    • nazsco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2semitic in antimicrosofitsm
    • webcrumb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"a miracle operating system"

      Jubuntu?
  • johndoe123, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7"Trackless" from boutell.com will erase the contents of all index.dat files FREE http://www.boutell.com/trackless/
    • webcrumb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Firefox from Mozilla will avoid you having to erase the contents of all index.dat files FREE.

      Oh, and so will Opera.
  • rebolyte, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13The most common response I get from people when asked why they use IE is that it's already on the system, and it "just works." I think if people (the general public, not just us diggers) knew exactly what it did, and the advantages of, say, Firefox, they would use the alternative.

    Yes, Firefox or any other browser might take a few hours to get the hang of for some tech-novice, but it's worth it in the end. The problem I have is getting people to see just how "worth it" it really is.

    The gap between the insiders (techno-geeks, etc.) and the outsiders (your average Joe, or your grandmother) is far too large. Where most people would pay hundreds of dollars for Adobe Photoshop Pro, I would much rather not pay a cent and use The GIMP. It's only because they don't know. Ignorance is not always bliss.

    I think the job of us "insiders" should be to unite the world against the forces of evil. Ha ha ha! No, really. We should help the novices who don't have a clue. Alert people to the fact that Microsoft isn't the only thing out there. Linux is going a little far for a beginner, but buying a Mac could be the same price as a new PC. Give people the "inside scoop". Remember, we were all beginners once.

    Don't hurt the newbies. Help them. The world will thank you for it.
    • maninblac1, on 10/12/2007, -13/+7I'm very aware of the benefits of "Firefox", i'm an extreme technical user, and i use IE. You ask why, because i don't care. Because i'm not dumb enough to be caught unaware. Because i'm constantly monitoring my system anyway.

      And most importantly, i use IE because i'm not afraid.

      And to be honost, i get excited when something tries to get by, cause then it's my turn to lash back. Firefox could never give me that. Techy nerds use firefox to be different, to not be the average joe, i think they're....in a way....cowards of the internet.
    • daedal, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I'm sorry but the "extreme technical user" just made me giggle.. EXTREME!
      Anyhow, your post doesn't really make an argument.

      You're just basically saying that you'd cut an apple with a chainsaw rather than a knife because you're not afraid? It's not about fear, it's about convenience, privacy and/or protection of your personal information. Good thing you're monitoring your machine but not all users do so and it's leaks like these, albeit almost a decade old, that makes using Internet Explorer not the wises choice, extreme or not.
    • skankyBacon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Just because you are aware of the risks doesn't mean it's still not a dumb thing to do.
    • CoolWind, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Intelligent people use Firefox because it is WAY better than IE. The fact that it's open source is icing on the cake.
    • maninblac1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6You see, i kinda find that funny. I don't exactly see the convience of firefox, i have to install another progam, keep it up to date, learn a new interface, rely on an open source team to provide me with security updates(who only for the benefit of the name of their own program do so efficiently), have features that aren't supported like active x, have to manage extentions which add functionality that could be incorperated into the browser directly. Seems like it's pretty user unfriendly in that light. Sure firefox has lots of expandability and the benefits of a different approach, but if you know what you're doing, there's nothing wrong with IE.

      And frankly, i've never in my life had an exploit used against me. I install malware willingly, just so i can clean it.

      And yes, i would cut an apple with a chainsaw, that sounds fun, i'd also cut a Mac with a chainsaw since that sounds fun and we're on an apple topic.
    • npinski, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1You had me right up until the last paragraph.

      We (the experts) should be telling them (the novices) that the informed alternative that might take a little getting-used-to but worth it in the end (and up until the point the examples you gave were Firefox over IE and GIMP over Photoshop) is.............a Mac???

      Mac is already marketing itself to people who are too dumb to use computers but still want to be able to blog about 9/11 conspiracies, write sappy emails to their ex's, type bad poetry, and well as have something nice and pretty and feng-shui to sit on their lap at starbucks.

      (by the way i'm liberal, and whether i like it or not, a yuppie as well)


      If anything, I'd say Kubuntu or Lindows is the Windows alternative that requires a little getting used to but may be worth it.
    • fatdog789, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I use FF as my main browser, but I'm starting to get tired of all these damn updates and patches and memory hogging and cpu utilization. The next time a patch breaks the ability to view streaming media, I permanently switch to Opera and IE7.
    • unreal32, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@rebolyte: When you talk to people about why they use IE, I don't doubt they say "it's there and it works". But as @maninblac1 has said, there are plenty of expert computer users that user IE. I'm one. And I have never had a virus or worm. Does that make me an outsider?

      My own view is that, in the hands of a novice, FireFox is just as dangerous as IE. Novice's will install EXE's off the Internet without worrying about trojans, and FireFox can't stop that. Some talk about this extension or that extensions, but novice's don't install extensions. FireFox = IE without ActiveX, and to me that's no big incentive to switch.

      In response to the story, I'll give it a digg because, although I knew of the index.dat file, I did not know it did not get cleared when the Internet cache was deleted. But the only real concern here is that if someone had physical access to your PC and advanced technical know how, they could get a list of URLs you've visited. So I think the risk is overstated. For 99.9999% of people, not clearing the index.dat file will have no negative affect.
  • shawnz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3this is jurassic. wow, an index of URLs used internally by windows.
  • pathfindertech, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Use a product like ccleaner from www.ccleaner.com and get on with your life.
  • timmarhy, on 10/12/2007, -8/+10wow the OS uses a database file to keep track of open files and url history so it can autocomplete previously visted sites - gosh darn who would have thunk it!

    lame ***** windows bash, not even an article just a link to wiki.

    and of course you can't delete it while windows is running you moron, windows is using the ***** thing it'd crash your system. read the damn wiki reboot into safe mode and you can remove it.

    when did such mindless dribble infect digg?
    • maninblac1, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Amen.
    • terranaut, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1The thing is that even if it is a helper object for Autocomplete, why can you not delete them without going to safe mode?

      (The conspiracy theorists propose that the index.dat files were instituted upon the request or comprise of the FBI)

      BTW if you really want to find all index.dat files on your system, or delete the file or individual entried within an index.dat file, you could do far wrong than trying index.dat suite found at:

      http://freeware.it-mate.co.uk/?Cat=PC_Maintenance

    • timmarhy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1BECAUSE IT'S INUSE BY WINDOWS

      thats why you can't delete it. it's a failing of ms'd filesystem, not some datamine for the fbi.
  • jmacdonagh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7The talk page debates the validity of this argument.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Index.dat
  • glafira, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Man, those of you still using IE, must have a damn good reason.
  • sigmaman2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8BTW, People are still confusing privacy with secrecy.

    I value my privacy, butI have no secrets to keep.

    You go to the bathroom in private. You go to the porno shop in secret.
    You read your personal journal in private. You read classified documents in secret.
    You send family photos to North Korea in private. You send missile blueprints to North Korea in secret.

    Private things you do without public scrutiny. Secret things you do without public knowledge.

    If we sacrifice the privacy of all, just to discover the secrets of a few, we're screwed top to bottom
  • ratsoid, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2c'moooon... you think the feds are gonna come into your house to see what site are you visiting? who cares? (you're naive)
  • adamlivesley, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2the index.dat file is only being used to help you out, why did someone make a digg about a wikipedia page thats been there years!?
  • echosierratwo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wait, I'm confused here, If it such a secret why the !@#$ do you know about it and why are you telling. !@#$in snitch!
  • Loath, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Flagged inaccurate. If people take the time to look at the index.dat files you will realize that firstly, it's not every single site you've ever visited. Secondly, it's mostly cookies and caching data. This isn't a log of every single thing you visit, this is a way to speed up your browsing. This Windows-hating and part fear-mongering is obviously posted by someone who does not have experience with the subject. WAIT! EVERYBODY PANIC! I think my computer is telling Microsoft/The Bush Administration all my secrets!

    /sigh
  • therealduckie, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2file this under "if you didn't already know this, turn off your computer and never turn in on again, moron"
  • overstre, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2One word. Two syllables.

    Firefox.
    • maninblac1, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3I thought it was 1 word 1 syllable,
      FAG.
  • Jammerdelray, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Extremely old news. Ccleaner clears it
  • redxii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Restart in Safe Mode?

    Try logging off, log into another account, then delete the index.dat for your account. No reboot needed.
  • joel2600, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'm suprised none of you people commented on the one thing that stood out most to me.

    The abstract lists the fact that this hidden file, or these hidden files are also keeping track of and/or caching all e-mails sent and recieved through Outlook and Outlook Express.

    That seems a little freaking outrageous to me. Ok, so not that many people use outlook express, but the vast majority of the business world thrives on Outlook/Exchange. I don't see any evidence pointing to the fact that any information about my e-mail is being stored anywhere.

    Can someone please help me clarify this? I've got a PST that's in the gigabytes of e-mail that's e-mail I've kept and not deleted. I can't imagine there's another file out there that's has to be 10 times the size that would include all of the stuff that I did delete (attachments aside)
  • hansamurai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Meh, Google keeps track of everything I do and I don't care.
  • adamx3212, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3I swear that people put dumb ass links to story on digg old news just reformat hdd that will get rid of it plus IE IE IE ROCKS ROCKS ROCKS...
    • maninblac1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Rocks, maybe not, but it's just fine.
  • socokoolaid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I've yet to find anyone, or Wiki, mention where specifically this index.dat file in question is located. I seem to have many under Documents and Settings that index cookies, temporary internet files, certain applications data's. Also I have duplicates for each user, of course. It'd be nice if some one cleared up the location of the important index.dat .
  • adamx3212, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1wow -1 boo whoo netscape site is better news
    • waveslam, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Jason? Is that you...?
    • adamx3212, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0if i was jason it would be jasonx3212 no im no jason read the name next time
    • waveslam, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1That whooshing noise you heard was my Jason Calcanis gag going right over your head, genius...
    • adamx3212, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0all right num nuts what ever you say
    • waveslam, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Oooh, witty retort. You must be very pleased with yourself.
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