Garbage in Content.IE5

Not so much a problem, mroe of a general group of questions.

When I do a scan of the HD for viruses – one directory it takes PAINFULLY slow to go through is the temp. internet files in content.IE5.

why? why? why?
a) Why is it so hard to delete these files? They don’t show up in Explorer – even if Show All Files is selected.

b) Is there something special about the files in this directory that make them so important as to cause this much grief trying to delete?

c) Is there an easy way to delete these?

e) Will deleting these cause any problems?

Thanks for any suggestions/comments.