CCleaner v3.05.1408 not deleting Index.dat

CCleaner for Windows CCleaner Windows Bug Reporting
1

Vista Ultimate/IE9

CCleaner v3.05.1408

I can't say if there are other places that CCleaner isn't deleting

files but checking several times, these Index.dat files are not

being deleted on reboot.

C:\Users\UserAccount\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History\History.IE5\Index.dat

(Currently over 835KB)

C:\Users\UserAccount\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\Index.dat

(Currently at over 3,200KB).

C:\Users\UserAccount\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\Index.dat

(Currently over 81KB)

2

How can you tell ?

Does it matter ?

There was a time when CCleaner "marked for deletion" and then got zapped - and immediately recreated by Windows.

I believe they now have the contents "vacuumed" in situ.

3

"How can you tell ?"

New, empty Index.dats are 16KB to 65KB, depending on location.

"Does it matter ?"

Depends. No program that claims to clean the items that CCleaner does

would be complete without cleaning ALL index.dat files. The ones I

listed are hands-down the most important. I use CCleaner rather than

a bunch of individual Windows cleaning apps because it is "one-click"

cleans all. I expect all. If you don't expect everything to be

cleaned, especially when you place a checkmark next to the item, then

you think differently than anyone I know.

4

"There was a time when CCleaner "marked for deletion" and then got zapped - and immediately recreated by Windows.

I believe they now have the contents "vacuumed" in situ."

I had to investigate the contents. It appears you are correct

that the contents get deleted ("vacuumed") but not the empty

files themselves.

I would like to state, that I don't feel comfortable with that

arrangement. Can that empty filespace be wiped with the

filename still in place?

"and then got zapped"

If you understand how the IE cache works, yes, they would be

zapped but they were needed files, so new ones would be created

by Windows. Those are data files that contain necessary

information (URLs)for the IE cache to function. (Unless you

choose privacy mode).

I'd like to know why the decision to delete the contents was

decided over the deletion of the entire file?

5

Cleaning Index.dat files is, shall we say, confusing. My main gripes are:

1) Checking the Index.dat section in Cleaner appears to do nothing in either Analysis or Clean. Why is it still there?

2) There's no indication of which Index.dat files will be cleaned.

3) Index.dat file cleaning is now apparently restricted to two places, Temp Int Files and History. We shouldn't be guessing what's cleaned.

It's all rather vague, which is why this question comes up regularly.

6

Cleaning Index.dat files is, shall we say, confusing. My main gripes are:

1) Checking the Index.dat section in Cleaner appears to do nothing in either Analysis or Clean. Why is it still there?

2) There's no indication of which Index.dat files will be cleaned.

3) Index.dat file cleaning is now apparently restricted to two places, Temp Int Files and History. We shouldn't be guessing what's cleaned.

It's all rather vague, which is why this question comes up regularly.

Although, CCleaner empties the files of content, I used Linux to delete the three I mentioned originally. I just feel better seeing the new Index.dat files with the smaller sizes. Thanks for the additional information.

7

Experienced exact same problem - newer versions of CCleaner do not delete index.dat in the content.IE5 folder. I experimented and found the last version to delete this file (and probably other index.dat files as well) was CCleaner V3.0. So, to overcome this 'problem/bug' I now have 2 CCleaner folders on my PC. One for the latest version (CCleaner) and one (CCleanerStartup) strictly to run at boot time to delete index.dat files on startup. It'll do until this issue is dealt with...

8

Experienced exact same problem - newer versions of CCleaner do not delete index.dat in the content.IE5 folder. I experimented and found the last version to delete this file (and probably other index.dat files as well) was CCleaner V3.0. So, to overcome this 'problem/bug' I now have 2 CCleaner folders on my PC. One for the latest version (CCleaner) and one (CCleanerStartup) strictly to run at boot time to delete index.dat files on startup. It'll do until this issue is dealt with...

If you'd read the thread you would realize there is no further issue.

This is the Answer

There was a time when CCleaner "marked for deletion" and then got zapped - and immediately recreated by Windows.

I believe they now have the contents "vacuumed" in situ.