Index.dat files

CCleaner for Windows
1

There seem to have been numerous posts on the subject of index.dat files, but I haven't found one that has been totally conclusive.

My understanding is that CCleaner cannot delete the index.dat files while Windows is running, so needs to delete them during boot-up. This can only be done using regular deletion, not using secure deletion.

I've also found that, in order for CCleaner to delete all the information from the index.dat files, it must be run just before shutting the PC down. I have CCleaner set to run at start-up. If I use Internet Explorer or Windows Live Messenger while my PC is running, then CCleaner doesn't delete all the information when I reboot the PC.

Is this correct?

2

Ccleaners defintions are wrong on vista and it wont cleaup the dat files properly by default. You have to unmount the filesystem to delete dat files.