There is a desktop.ini file inside of temporary internet files that tells
windows the whole folder structure at and below this level is protected and
should not be accessible to explorer.  This is an abstraction layer IE puts
in the user interface, so that the user can't see the physical location of
specific cached items if they were to go into Tools, Internet Options,
Temporary Internet Files, Settings.

If you want you can expose all of the folder hierarchy by going into the
Temporary Internet Files folder after booting to dos, and deleting the
desktop.ini files.  Rename Temporary Internet Files to JUNK.  On reboot into
windows, you will have a new Temporary Internet Files folder, and JUNK will
still be there for you to explore like any folder.  It will still be hidden,
but you won't be locked out.  You just need your folders options set to show
hidden files.


If you only want to delete select files, you don't have to boot to dos. Open
a command prompt window.  For Win2000 /xp and IE6, go to
Documents and Settings\username\local settings\temporary internet
files\content.ie5

where your login is substituted for username.  This is a system folder so
nothing appears unless you type

dir /as

(note: local settings is hidden, not system, so it appears if the command is
dir /ah)

On my system there are 7 additional folders, with seemingly random strings
of characters for names.  You have to search each for the files you want to
delete, since IE's rationale for cache storage is incomprehensible.
Tom Turak

-----Original Message-----
From: Peetie Wheatstraw [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 5:21 PM

Hi,

I used W2k Pro Windows Explorer to view my IE6 Temporary
Internet Files. There were about 30k of them.

Being an old MS DOS kinda guy, I used a command prompt to
set my directory, something like:

cd "d:\Documents and settings\Fname Lname
      \Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files"

I intended to issue commands like:

 del *doubleclick*.*
 del *real*.*
 del *lycos*.*

but when I issued a 'dir' command to see if anything was
functional, it returned 'file not found'. It was as if
the dir. with the 30k files was empty (it was not). I
was able to delete some files with Windows Explorer but
not by filename components as intended (above).

How does one selectively delete certain Temporary Internet
Files without wasting beau coup time? Any idea why the 'dir'
command returned the 'file not found' message?

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