Deleting Temporary Internet Files


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When I am cleaning spyware in other peoples computers, I try to do it as fast as possible. I noticed when running MBAM, it spends lots of time scanning temporary internet files. To try and speed the scan up, I run ATF cleaner first, but it does not seem to delete them all. It seems as if Windows is doing its best to hide and protect them. If I navigate to the following location

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

, this directory appears empty, even though I have hidden files shown. I know it is not empty, since MBAM spens lots of time scanning files in it. Why are these so hidden? I just want to be able to delete them %100 before scanning.

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If you go tot he folder options setting it to show hidden files still loves some hidden. There's another option to hide protected operating system files. Those are probably what are still hidden.

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Thanks, I did not even think of that, but it is still not showing all the files.

edit added later//

in particular the content.ie5 folder(it contains lots of temporary internet files) seems to be really hidden. If I type it in the explorer address bar manually, I can get to those files, then delete them

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It looks like TIF is magical: the folder is a driven by shell extension that displays the contents of the hidden subdirectories (and possibly other things). The magic apparently prevents you from browsing the underlying directory in Explorer. I don't know if there's anything you can do short of disabling the shell extension, and I don't know if that's possible.

FWIW, I can see all of the hidden directories with dir /a. (Cygwin and gvim can see them, too, but I don't imagine that's too useful.)

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Thanks, I did not even think of that, but it is still not showing all the files.

edit added later//

in particular the content.ie5 folder(it contains lots of temporary internet files) seems to be really hidden. If I type it in the explorer address bar manually, I can get to those files, then delete them

I just run Disk Cleanup. You can highlight Temporary Internet Files then click the View Files button to see Content.IE5. On my own PC I created a shortcut to this folder and placed it on my desktop along with shortcuts to both Temp folders and the TIF folder.

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Will using cygwin allow me to delete files that windows explorer will not, for example, stuff running in memory? I have a hunch this just uses the windows api and can't do this.

Your hunch is correct.

(As it happens NT does support deleting open files but it requires cooperation from all of the processes that have the files open and apparently the files haunt the system, rattling chains and causing mysterious "Access Denied" errors, until they're really deleted.)

Incidentally, I think Cygwin uses a few registry entries to track mount points. I'm not sure if they need to be present when Cygwin starts or if it will create them.

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i do all my cleaning in safe mode that gets them all

the reason some files are not deleted is because when you scan in normal mode those files are in use

but in safe mode they not in usa

and get deleted

marty

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  • 2 weeks later...
CCleaner gets much larger rankings on CNET

http://www.download.com/CCleaner/3000-2144....html?tag=mncol

Ok? I have seen CCleaner do some pretty bad damage to machine's by removing system files/necessary files. I do not recommend it, period.

Just because it's a more "well-known" application doesn't make it better.

B

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Usually Applications are "Well Known" because they work better.

I've seen much better reviews for CCleaner than ATF Cleaner.

Really it comes down to personal preference. I've used CCleaner on a wide variety of machines. Never have had any problems.

Any negative reviews I have read is because they used the registry cleaner and not the temporary cleaner.

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Personal preference or not, you will find that in the anti-malware communities that ATF-Cleaner is the preferred temp file cleaner of choice. Not only does it work, but it's very simple and easy to use. It does what it should, nothing more, nothing less.

When you're working on a machine remotely, you don't have the potential option for something to go wrong as you're not there to fix it.

B

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A temporary files cleaner has very little to do with anti malware. Yes wares lurk in the temp directories occasionally.

Actually, you're wrong. It has a lot to do with it. There are a number of trojans, viruses, malware files, and tracking cookies that reside in temp folders. Therefore it is a necessary tool (ATF Cleaner) to use during the removal process.

B

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Protip: Tracking cookies =/= bad

Additionally viruses don't waste much time in the temp directory.

The only subject your touching here that lurks in the temp direct. is trojan horses and about 90% of the time they install other appls to use those files so they can't be deleted.

Additionally in my last post I acknowledged what you said.

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Protip: Tracking cookies =/= bad

Additionally viruses don't waste much time in the temp directory.

The only subject your touching here that lurks in the temp direct. is trojan horses and about 90% of the time they install other appls to use those files so they can't be deleted.

First off, a tracking cookie is not necessarily bad as you mention, nonetheless, not everyone wants them. I personally do not mind them, but we cannot speak in absolutes as everyone has different privacy expectations.

Lastly, if you read my post you would see I said "during the removal process" - it's a step taken during the process, not the only step.

B

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Even in my Training, my instructors DO NOT recommend CCleaner: We are to use ATF - I agree with Jeff Here - I'd rather use something SAFE then to use CCleaner and have a damaged PC, or use it and damage someone elses :)

Brian

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Even in my Training, my instructors DO NOT recommend CCleaner: We are to use ATF - I agree with Jeff Here - I'd rather use something SAFE then to use CCleaner and have a damaged PC, or use it and damage someone elses :)

Brian

Agreed, I have seen many cases where using CCCleaner messed up a machine; often to the point of making it non bootable; I have never heard of or seen a case where ATF Cleaner did that.

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