Local Settings Subfolders inconsistency

[Musical]

Please help with this exxxxtreeeeemly puzzling problem.... which has bugged me no end for a while now...

 

1st I'll say this. In a thread "history folder, to view history folder " that Login 123 posted at the very end of last year about probs with the Local Settings and subfolders, it described what seemed to be the closest I've seen that has at least some sort of resemblance to my problem . Just as an aside, my system actually does have a few unrelated glitches but overall the performance is fine. XP Pro - IE7 - Latest CCleaner. I've always wondered whether CCleaner may have screwed up/erased some of my Subfolders somehow, but wasn't sure.

 

Also, this is one of those things that just happened unawares as sometimes things do B4 you actually take enough notice to pin down dates and such. I cant remember when this exactly started happening, but probably around late last year or early this year and I can't remember whether my installing IE7 was at the same time and has screwed this up and not CCleaner at all.

 

Sooo heres a description of what the problem is as best as I can describe it.

 

With these settings below, some of my Subfolders are not showing on my account in the Local Settings. On other accounts they are showing on some accounts OK with Subfolders and still others dont have the complete subfolders.

 

With Windoze Explorer > Tools > Folder Options > Show Hidden Folders and files > enabled .... heres what I see by Clicking on Docos and Settings > My User Name > Local settings ..... 2 Subfolders : Application data and Temp.

 

If I Disenable "Hide protected OS files" (in the same Folder Options area), then the History and Temporary Internet Files folders show up.... but NOT with the 4 Subfolders.

 

Please have a look at my Pikkies to make my point hopefully clearer.

 

Questions:

1/ Who else has got this problem and have you resolved it and if so how?

 

2/ I've tried copying in the subfolders from other accounts and Noooo Goooo ... is there a way I can copy them back ???? (but ooooo noooo please no OS reinstalls )

 

3/ Does Windoze somehow only "build" a History Folder OR TIF Folder on a new account once theres files to put in there....? ( hope I'm making sense )

 

4/ I thought the Local Settings Folder was supposed to be "dulled out"? my one is "full colour" ... why is that or is this a new IE7 thing ???

 

Any input ]MUCH [[/b]/size]appreciated

TIA

Musical

[Musical]

I thought the Attachments would show the file name, which it hasn't so I need to just add that the pickie on the left is My usual User Account and the one on the right is Another User Account.

 

Musical

[Andavari]

For some reason some folders for no reason can disappear and I don't necessarily think it's CCleaner related but perhaps some software install or uninstall.

 

I recently had my User Profile TEMP folder completely disappear and only new about it after running a registry cleaner that stated it no longer existed, of course manually recreating the folder fixed that problem.

[Musical]

Andavari, thanks for your reply,

 

Care to tell me how you actually manaully recreated it? ...like a step by step procedure... I tried and failed, but that was the actual History and TIF folders, which I found are actually there but they arn't showing unless I have the Hide protected OS files unchecked. wiiieeeerd man wiierrd. Its the IE5 folder and the 4 inside that that are still missing in my User Account, but as you can see by the picks the files are on the next layer in. I havn't even started figuring out the index dat situ with this yet.... 1st th8ings 1st

 

Musical

[fireryone]

Have you tried logging in with the other account and doing some surfing with IE, It may create the Content.IE5 folder...

 

Weird how the check box seems to have been reversed (on is off/off is on) though.

[Musical]

fireryone !!! Full marks for noticing that!!! which I didn't see until U pointed it out.

 

As I say wiieeerdoo. I know about a month ago when I was clicking on this and that, I was sometimes getting things to show under various settings and sometimes not, but could'nt reproduce the wierdness at will......

 

Anywayz yeah, thanx for the suggestion, I will go into another account and see what happens...

[Andavari]

Care to tell me how you actually manaully recreated it? ...like a step by step procedure... I tried and failed, but that was the actual History and TIF folders, which I found are actually there but they arn't showing unless I have the Hide protected OS files unchecked.

I don't have the slightest idea how you'd go about properly recreating those folders since they're system folders. Although fireryone's suggestion sounds like it's worth a shot.

[MikeW]

If its any help to you mine is the same as yours - the IE5 folders are missing - I think it is to do with IE7

[fireryone]

Try:

 

Go to the directory:

C:\Documents and Settings\UserNameHere\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\

 

And type Content.IE5 into the address bar.

 

The directory may be super hidden on like in the old Win98 days.

Even with "Show Hidden files" checked and "Hid Protected Operating System Files" unchecked .

 

So it may still be there....

[Musical]

Thanks for your responses.

 

Sorry my answer has been a bit long in coming but its been a quite time consuming preparing this post. I?ve followed up on your suggestions??

 

I spent a couple of hours in another account yesterday and did a bit of surfing plus clicked on all the users and their Local Settings which I will summarize in a mo?. Then it got late and had to go to bed?.

 

I have about 5 different users I've created over time for various things to try. Anyway I logged on as one of them (full admin ) I tried various things mainly starting off with checking and unchecking that Hide System Files option. I had the 2 pane view open in W Expl. The more I just generally clicked around opening different Folders and subfolders the more inconsistent and wierrrrdo things became.

 

I think I could safely state one thing though.... Im sure certain folders are "built" as you use your computer for that various task.... like in the Mac world we trash various preferences which can become corrupt and the OS will build/rebuild more fresh ones when the program is reloaded or pooter rebooted.

 

Anyway there sure is something horribly screwy with my user Accts. Heres some of the weirdness I encountered....

 

Yesterday, after Booting into "Other Acct" ?

 

? on going to my usual user account in Windoze Exp with Folder options showing both hidden and System files when I booted, the 4 folders initially showed. Then when I disabled show System files the History and TIF folders didn't show. But when they did initially show the more clicking I did on the History icon the more wierd it became like having NO + or - sign next to it. Then eventually the History and TIF Folders didn?t show at all.

 

After doing a bit of surfing there were no TIFs or History files !!! BUT when I looked in another User acct it was there !!!!!! These 2 accounts seem to be screwed with each other!!!

 

I found by clicking on Another Users TIF The CONTENT.IE5 originally had + beside each folder below..then as I clicked on one of those folders it lost the + sign, then the rest did after I exited then re-enterd (closed and then opened Content IE5) that is? they all lost their + signs.

 

On my Acct I double Clicked the Content IE5s in the right pane and then they showed in the left pane !!!!!

 

Now today, booting in to My User Account ?.

 

Initially Folders and subfolders would show on my Account, with Hide Sys Files UNCHECKED but TIFs Subby had NO + beside it meaning no subfolders. After going to other users Local Settings and then returning to My User Acct then the History and TIF Folders didn?t show at all.

 

When I did get them to show after rebooting, I performed that search in the addy bar. Now how weirdo is this?????? See Attachments

Again I could ?populate? the left panes TIF\Content.IE5?s 4 folders by D Clking in the right panes ones

 

In Content.IE5?s properties on my User Acct I had both Hidden & Read only Checked. Hidden was greyed out. If I disabled Read only, whether I applied it or OK?d it the setting would?nt ?stick?.

 

 

MikeW

Thanks ?it is of some use actually ? just to know its not only me?.. I strongly suspect IE7 too.

 

fireryone

?Weird how the check box seems to have been reversed (on is off/off is on) though?.

 

On second glance at the + and ? signs I now have to say I cant see where they are opposite?. Sorry I must be temporarily blind now or hallucinated before ?. Coz they look OK now?can you explain exactly which ones are opposite coz all mine show like this ?. Like?When you click on the little + it opens that folder to a ?new level one layer in? which is evident by a ? mark I take it?

 

?The directory may be super hidden on like in the old Win98 days.

Even with "Show Hidden files" checked and "Hid Protected Operating System Files" unchecked .?

 

As you can see I can actually get them to show but with a fair bit of inconsistent weirdness, and I can?t seem to use the unhide option in the Content.IE5 properties as it is greyed out. So any ideas on how can I ?super unhide? these super hidden Folders would be most welcome?

 

As I said, Ive done your search and so please see these attachments in relation to bringing up the Content.IE5 Folder as well as other general discrepancies ALL screenshots are of my usual Account in Local Settings

 

1/ Initial view with Hide Syst Files unchecked

2/ Another ?initial view? with Hide Syst files unchecked

3/ 2 Folders now show after exiting and re-opening Local settings a few times. The exact amount of clicking unreproducable.

4/ The view after I did an address bar search

5/ ?Repopulating? the Folders on the left by DClking the folders on the right (and ignoring the warning about opening sys files)

6/ Content.IE5 properties whilst accessing from My Account

[fireryone]

I'm not sure now.....

 

I'd say, if your not having a problem with browsing and nothing suspect in a HijackThis log,

try not to worry about it.

[Musical]

Not worrying as such, but just VERY VERY curious.... as I say my system is running very adequately speedwise with a few things a bit glitchy like windows Help and Support takes a minute to load up on my Acct but like about 3 seconds on the others....

 

Not sure how to read the hijack this logs but I am suspect about one lot of sites that showed up on my TIFs a couple of days ago that I never went to ... would this be a re-direct or something? ....

 

Anywayz me thinks I might just build me a new user account ... but ooooo you don't realize how much you customzie things to your liking till you have to run an untweaked setup

 

Any further comments most welcome...

Musical

[fireryone]

Go here for directions on hijackthis logs:

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=1720

 

Then make a new post, here (adding a link to this thread as well as the log file) for a pro to look over it:

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showforum=12

[login123]

And type Content.IE5 into the address bar.

 

Shazam. . .never used the address bar before today. . .ya learn something every day. Thanks, Fireyone.

 

However. . .history folder is still ornery. Right now mine has 4 files called index.dat, and 2 called desktop.ini, none of which are visible in windows explorer. I can find them by copying the history folder into my documents, winzipping it, then viewing the zip file, also by the slower method of navigating to each folder by way of the dos prompt. Don't know if other archiving utilities will work the same as winzip, to show up the hidden files, cannot check right now, am on a different computer.

 

My objective is to securely delete all the TIF folders. Using CCleaner v1.36.430, they were just deleted, not securely deleted (pointed out by Andavari), so I moved them at startup to c:\documents and settings\owner\local settings\temp. I believe that this folder is securely deleted by CCleaner. Two exe commands, movefile and pendmoves, can be used to move files at startup. They are available free from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx.

 

>whew<, sorry for the long post.

[Whiteshark]

Try:

 

Go to the directory:

C:\Documents and Settings\UserNameHere\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\

 

And type Content.IE5 into the address bar.

 

The directory may be super hidden on like in the old Win98 days.

Even with "Show Hidden files" checked and "Hid Protected Operating System Files" unchecked .

 

So it may still be there....

 

I can confirm this behaviour. Right clicking > Properties on my Temporary Internet Files folder

it contains 5 subfolders (Content.IE5 + 4 random named subfolders, as usual). But these folders

are always hidden for Windows Explorer, even unhiding all system files by default. They can be

visualized only thru Windows Disk Cleaner > Clean Disk > Show Files, or (and this is pretty strange)

browsing the directory using Winrar.

[MikeW]

These files used to be visable in explorer on my PC. I thought they vanished after updating to IE7. However, I dont think this is the case, it appears to be connected with cleaning the index.dat files with CCleaner.

[Whiteshark]

These files used to be visable in explorer on my PC. I thought they vanished after updating to IE7. However, I dont think this is the case, it appears to be connected with cleaning the index.dat files with CCleaner.

 

Must confirm also this

My index.dat file currently is not detected/cleaned, starting from previous

version of CCleaner, as i've reported in some other threads.

[Andavari]

Must confirm also this

My index.dat file currently is not detected/cleaned, starting from previous

version of CCleaner, as i've reported in some other threads.

Well since very recent versions of CCleaner not all of the IE Temporary Internet Files is cleaned, and the only way I knew of that is because I always run CCleaner, then follow it up by running Disk Cleaner.

[Anthony A]

Shazam. . .never used the address bar before today. . .ya learn something every day.

 

 

Speaking of learning something new every day how do you get that folder view in the screen shots? Every time you click a folder a sub folder opens in a tree view. When I click on a folder the sub folders open up but the the main folder is not visible. I have to go back to see it. I looked through explorer options and folder views but I don't see an option to change this. Are you using Windows explorer or some other program to manage your files?

[Anthony A]

Never mind I see what he did. I wasn't sure what I was looking at there but I am OK now

[Musical]

Thanx again for all your responses,

 

at least I know all this is not just me .... my Mums still on IE6 and I've used CCleaner on her computer, so next time I see her I will check out what her Local Settings Folder contains.

 

Oh and when I get a spare moment I'll do that Hijack this post.

 

Musical

[hazelnut]

Article here about this very interesting subject (old one but certain points still very valid)

 

http://sillydog.org/mshidden.php

 

a bit from the article....

 

 

To see for yourself, you can simply erase the desktop.ini files. You'll see that it will instantly give Windows Explorer proper viewing functionality again, and the "Find" utility proper searching capabilities again. Problem solved right? Actually, no. As it turns out, the desktop.ini files get reconstructed every single time you restart your computer. Nice one, Slick.

 

Luckily there is a loophole which will keep Windows from hiding these folders. You can manually edit the desktop.ini's and remove everything except for the "[.ShellClassInfo]" line. This will trick windows into thinking they have still covered their tracks, and wininet won't think to reconstruct them.

 

I can't stress how ridiculous it is that Windows actually makes sure the files are hidden on every single boot. No other files or folders get this kind of special treatment. So what's the agenda here?

[Musical]

Hazelnut, Wow, interesting link alright!!!! NONE of this surprises me at all, and I NEVER EVER EVER have done, am, or going to, trust M$ ....

 

There is soooooOOOOooooo much underhandedness going on that invades everybodies privacy EVERYDAY that you feel like you have to go to university to learn how to deal with it.. ...... leverything seems to be logged here and there and everywhere leaving your tracks a mile a wide for all to see. Its not that people necessarily have something to hide either, but the principle of the matter, that we were never designed to know everybody elses business. VERY scary stuff, when you see people encouraged to "air their dirty linen in public" as if it is now a natural thing, but I'm getting a bit OT.

 

Musical