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Temporary Files Location

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9 replies

by sprocket

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On my Windows XP SP2 machine my temporary internet files, cookies and History are stored at:

\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
\Cookies
\Local Settings\History

Which is the default, i have never changed these, so why do i have duplicate folders in my temp directory as well:

\Temp\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
\Temp\Cookies
\Temp\Local Settings\History

Everything is appearing in both. I cannot delete either set as Windows is saying i need them and both have the current dates.

If i use Internet Options to clear the files, both locations are clear, so Windows must be confused. Whats strange is that if i search the registry for the wrong locations, ie, the ones in the temp directory, nothing is found. So how can windows be saving to those locations when it doesnt know about them?

9 replies

by sgt_shultz

that's weird. what do you get when you type 'set' at a cmd prompt? this the latest IE? do you use another browser (just fishing)

you what would be really funny,if this were a web design tech forum. man, who is designing this website that used smiley's??? bet it was a ready made 'feature' for a dog and pony show and should be taken out now...
plus i can't say asshole but damn seems ok.
plus they took out the 'all unopened questions' option unless i am blind...
sorry. just blowing off steam...

by jaqui

it's windows logging.
ms has a habit of duplicating everything in different places and trying to hide it from you.
that is why and where these come from.

it's not a registry entry, it is a core design part of the os.

by sprocket

You jogged my mind. This only happened after using Evidence Eliminator to clean up my machine, so it just unhide these areas.

by w2ktechman

Hello Sprocket,
what happens when you open system properties and look at the environment variables? There may be 2 different path statements for temps in there.
Else, what happens when the TEMP folder is deleted?

by jm

Windows is creating an alias directory path to the location, but the data is really stored all in one place. This mechanism is similar to the way you can get to your 'my documents' a couple of different ways.

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