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Garbage in Content.IE5

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6 replies

by msteffan

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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.

6 replies

by syscokid

In Internet Explorer, click on Tools, Internet Options. On the General tab, in the section that says Temporary Internet Files, click on Delete Files. There is no harm in doing this; in fact, it should be part of your routine PC maintenance.

(I don't know why you don't see the files. I can see them fine on my system).

by msteffan

Deleting files there does not delete the files in the Content.IE5 directory. These are seemingly undeletable. The files in the 'root' of c:\windows\temp internet files I can see fine. It is the hidden subdirectories that I have issues with.

by ann777

Go to Temporary Internet Files and then click on the plus by the Content file. They should show up in Windows Explorer. You can highlight and delete each folder under Content individually. Do not delete the content file itself (it's not a problemif you do, but I find that it's easier to remove the folders underneath individually first). Delete the folders under it, then delete the individual files in Content (if any are there). Delete any cookies.

There's nothing special about these folders or files. They will be recreated the next time you browse the Internet. Deleting them causes no problems and in fact, resolves many problems with Internet/Intranet issues.

I've see users with 4000+ files within these subfolders. Get rid of everything, including the cookies.

by ann777

It's slow when going through an anti-virus scanner because there's so many of these files. They are not large files, but they take up space and cause problems. Remove them regularly, you don't need them.

by msteffan

I was not using win explorer to get to the IE5 dir - i was going through via My Computer.

I went through via Windows Explorer - saw the IE5 content folders and deleted them. 59 meg of wasted space - even though I removed' the files via the IEproperties option.

Thanks a lot for the help!!

Ed

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