index.dat files

CCleaner for Windows
1

Does CCleaner clean index.dat files? If not, can anyone recommend a good program for this?

Thanks

2

You can see the features of things that ccleaner does here

http://docs.piriform.com/ccleaner/ccleaner...-explorer-files

I have linked it to the page with index.dat info on it.

3

I'd like to add to this question. In "Documents and Settings" in Window XP, under your user name, you see two NTUSER files. One is a text file, one is a DAT file.

CCleaner cleans the text file, which I'm assuming is temporary storage, and sends it back to 1KB.

It does not clean the DAT file. I cannot read what's in the DAT file because it's all gibberish, but I'm told it contains a long history of activity since the computer was first booted up. Mine is now about 11MB; my wife's about 8 MB.

I would like to clean this file, if that is possible. I understand you cannot delete it; that this will cause problems. But is there a way to at least clean it? Can you add it as a "custom file" to clean, or will this cause problems?

Thank you.

4

Leave this file well alone as it's part of the registry.

There will be a seperate ntuser.dat file for each user on a PC.

Wilders Security. ntuser.dat info:

Hope that helps real large.

5

Thank you DennisD.

I too found that link when I googled "clean DAT file." Unfortunately it does not really asnwer the question, so I thought this would be the place where someone could give a more clear-cut answer.

This DAT file grows as you use your computer. So it must be accumulating information. To me, that is a privacy issue.

There must be some way to clean this DAT file (not the NTUSER text file; CCleaner cleans that -- but the NTUSER DAT file in your Windows XP "Documents and Settings" folder; the one CCleaner does not clean).

If anyone has experience with this, I'd very much appreciate it. Where there's a will, there's a way.

6

I'm no registry expert, but I wouldn't be led to your decision by the name of this file, ntuser.dat.

From my reading of it, it doesn't contain information that would compromise a users privacy. It simply contains personal settings, and screwing with it would most probably corrupt it, and cause you major headaches.

Again from Wilders link:

The user profile includes environment variables, personal program groups, desktop settings, network connections, printers, and application preferences.

I really wouldn't worry about this file as it simply contains a users settings, and not stuff like other .dat files hold. You really could break something if you mess with it.

You can add it to be included by CCleaner, and CCleaner ignores it. There's a reason for that I would think, but I'm not one of the development team.

EDIT: I think it worth mentioning that I have a lot of stuff on my PC with no doubt a shed load of settings built up over the last 3 years, and my ntuser.dat file is only 14.5mb. That's nothing on the scale of todays hard drives.