How can I delete or resize Index.dat files?

I have Internet Explorer 6. In the temporary internet files, there is a file called index.dat which keeps growing. Its now up to 5 MB. I have nothing saved in any of the IE files. I delete them everyday. Can I delete index.dat or reduce the file size? Thanks Judy

This question was answered on July 13, 2002. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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Index.dat files contain information about websites you have visited and cookies you have received The main purpose, according to Microsoft, is that they speedup browsing by keeping this information nearby Since these files are never emptied, they continue to grow in size indefinitely, which may cause a slowdown in performance while browsing As you have already discovered, the problem is that they don't delete when you clear your temporary internet files! There are a number of third party utilities designed to empty, or temporarily delete, these files Software programs such as TweakIE, PurgeIE, ZDelete, Window Washer and AntiSpy can be found by doing a search in Google on "index.dat" It is not possible to permanently delete index.dat files because IE constantly uses them and they will be recreated each time your computer is started or rebooted

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Posted by Lois of Mesa Community College on July 13, 2002

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