History still there! 5

[karmafree]

Under "Tools | Internet Options..."
in IE6 running winXP Pro,
I have done:

1. Delete Cookies
2. Delete Files
3. Clear History

Further to that I've got TweakUI
installed to clear all logs and
everything like that on boot;
- I mean EVERYTHING!

STILL, there is one URL that
pop-ups when I hit the first
letter of it in the address bar!

Even stranger, is that it does not
appear anywhere else in the history
folders - the folders are empty!
It only appears when I enter the
first letter of the URL in the
address bar.

How can I clear this ghost URL in
the address bar?

Thanks,
karmafree.

 

[jmatt]

http://www.lsfileserv.com/index.html

http://www.lsfileserv.com/downloads.html

Ad-Aware
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Download the most recent version of our award winning, free multi spyware removal utility.

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http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/cleansweep/

http://www.mindspring.com/~dpoch/enigmatic/cachesentry.html

 

[NucomMat]

Ok, I have tried all the suggestions, even used Spider and it did not help me at all. Last time this happened I formatted to correct the problem, this time I didn't want to let XP win! Here is what you have to do to remove all the history of from IE...I noticed that both times this occurred, it was the SAME web page doing this to me, it was a gamers.com message board. This corrected it...are you ready?
Kinda long, so I would recommend printing it out to have it as a reference.

This is written in regards specifically to the above mention problem, and is using the "Administrator" account as being the one with the problem, if you account is having this problem, substitute the "Administrator" account for your account name.

Log in as "Administrator", create a new user account that is an administrator

Log off of "administrator" and log in as the new account

Click on My Computer, Tools, Folder Options, select "Show all Files"

Double click "C" and then double click "Documents and Settings"

Double Click on "Administrator", at this point it may tell your that you don't have permission to access these files

if is does right click in the folder then click on "Sharing and Security" at this point you may get the same error, or

it may tell you that you can change ownership of these files, once it does that click "Security" from the tabs at the top

then click on "Advanced" then click "Owner" then highlight Administrators (YOUCOMPUTERNAME\ADMINISTRATORS)

Put a check mark in the box "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" click "Apply" then "Ok"

Now you can open the folder, go into "Local Settings" folder, and look for folders called "History"

There may be more than 1, so look in all the folders, I think the problem comes from the "History.IE5" folder

Delete them all. Open up "Temporary Internet File" and select all and delete once again

Also go into "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer"

And delete the MSIMGSIZ.dat and any other *.dat files that exist

Next go into "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\cookies" and delete the index.dat file

Next go into the "Temp" directory and delete all the files in there also.

DO NOT EMPTY THE RECYCLE BIN AT THIS POINT, if you experience any problems you can log back in

to this account and restore all the files to their original location...just as a precaution

If your OS is loaded to anything other than "C" replace it with the appropriate location in the above mentioned
directories.


YYMV, but it seems to work.

DISCLAIMER: IF YOUR ACCOUNT DOES NOT WORK AFTER DOING THIS, I AM NOT RESPONCEABLE, BUT IT WORKED FOR ME JUST FINE, AND I AM POSTING FROM THE ACCOUNT THAT WAS HAVING THE PROBLEM.


-Mat

 

[tjd]

I think evidence eliminator does deep registry search and destroys as part its deal too.

 

[nufiesteve]

I noticed something while going through this myself, when i would type in the address bar a letter from the alphabet after all cache/cookies/hist was cleared the address that would still come up were the ones in my fav folder.

check to see if you have the address in the fav folder

"Keep it real, but make it smooth!"

 

[karmafree]

uh no, when I had this problem my fav folder was empty!
There is no alternative yet on the market to do a clean re-install - trust me!

 

[tjd]

uhh... We use evidence eliminator, sometimes called computer eliminator, and it gets EVERYTHING!!! Oops! I've joined a club that'll have me as a member?

 

[Koster]

I followed the instructions given by NucomMat on Oct 30, 2002: It worked!!!

No problems occured.

Don't forget to "Replace the Owner on subcontainers and objects" with the originals administrators account after you followed the instructions.

Good work NucomMat!!

 

[simintel]

hey i'm having this problem too i have tried everything including the spider which for me didn't work at all, but when i used purge ie it helped but i still couldn't get rid of the url's that i wanted to it said that there was an error in the url please help me if you know how to fix these urls so i can delete them or give me some other notification please i am desperate

 

[cdogg]

For anyone else reading this thread that didn't catch index.dat in Deke40's post above, this is the main culprit.

Microsoft intentionally archives URL's visited in this file. It is a system file that is protected while Windows is running. You have to either reboot to MS-DOS and delete it there manually, or as I prefer, put an entry in your autoexec.bat to delete it at startup. Depending on your OS, you may have more than one. So, take note of all the different paths that might exist.

Don't worry about harming your system. The index.dat gets recreated...


~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[jmatt]

Here is another cleaner .

http://www.x9000.net/

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mrx9000/

http://216.239.35.100/search?q=cache:YWd9fw8mgIEC:www.x9000.net/+Xen+and+Xen+tweak&hl=en

Xen V1.79b by Paul Brown May 2002
x9000@techie.com
compatible with 95/98/98SE/ME/NT/2000/XP
With Xen comes 'Xenclean' and is useful to have starting up with your computer
or on demand and is only about 20k in size. For the advanced users out there
check out the 'Tweaking and Optimising' Windows document that comes with Xen.


FEATURES OF XEN INCLUDE
- protects privacy and frees up disk space
- runs on win 95,98,98SE,ME,NT,2000 and XP
- cleans up more temporary files than any other cleanup program
- cleans up browser cache completely ! (even index.dat)
- cleans out cookie files completely ! (even index.dat
- cleans up web history files completely ! (even history.dat)
- cleans up recent history
- cleans up and optimizes your registry
- removes application debugging information
- removes temporary pc health files
- removes temporary setup files
- removes temp files left behind by windows
- cleans up literally 100's and 100's of different temporary files
- cleans up your history trails in windows and also in 100's of different programs
- cleans out registry entries and optimises registry
- cleans out some major spyware that is out there and stops it from starting up
- cleans recycle bin
- scandisk and defrag options for startup
- backs up and restores your registry and keyfiles
- backs up and restores your root files
- backs up and restores your user profiles
- backs up your my documents
- backs up your outlook address book and data
- backs up your pgp keys if exist
- backs up drive completely to another drive
- backs up and restores your CMOS
- backs up and restores your master boot record
- security check for trojans
- security for VBS scripts and other scripts
- automatically detects user profiles and utilises them, even in windows 9x
- frees up memory on exit
- self sufficient and creates its own files
- saves and restores your icon layout on desktop

 

[denbigh97]

Hey karmafree, I had the same problem with my IE6 on WinXP. I tried everything (ie: spider, deleting index.dat...), but none worked.....until I stumbled upon this program called Tracks Erasor Pro 3.2. You can download it at

http://www.acesoft.net.

It's a 15 day trial version, but works great! It cleared up my index.dat and those hidden history URLs that always seem to stay are now GONE. I hope it helps.

 

[Aadje]

Each time, when i start up my 5.5 I.E. with Google as starting page, in a split second the adresbar change in, "ENTER SERCH OR KEYWORD". Even when i give Google a searchcommand, the adres changes to a searchengine named "Searchcom",

http://www.searchresult.net

I discoverd dat while it was searching this adres was showing in the taskbar at the bottom of the page:

http://www.ingkeywords.com.

I've tried to get ride of this, simply because i don't like that companies put stuff in my comp, without knowing that they do.

So i've downloaded; Spider, Editurl's, PurgeIE, but the problem wasn't solved.

Also all this information wat is put in this thread, didn't helped me.

So do anybody know how i can solve this litlle problem.

Your's sincerely, Aad from the Netherlands

 

[jmatt]

You can protect your comp from Spyfiles by using these 3 programs together .

http://beam.to/spybotsd

What does SpyBot-Search & Destroy?

SpyBot-S&D searches your hard drive for so-called spy- or adbots; little modules that are
responsible for the ads many programs display. But many of these modules also transmit
information about your surfing behaviour and more to the net.
If SpyBot-S&D finds such modules, it can remove them - or replace them with empty dummies in
case their host software won't run with its bot removed. In most cases, the host still runs
fine after removing the bot.
For a list of 'supported' bots see the feature lists below. The Spybot-S&D interface is so
easy, that updates just require replacing a file of about 80k in size. Those updates are
distributed by my software mailinglist, over this page and are also available from inside the
programs update section.

Another feature of Spybot S&D is the removal of usage tracks, which makes it more complicated
for unknown spybots to transmit useful data. The list of last visited websites, opened files,
started programs, cookies, all that and more can be cleaned. Supported are the three major
browsers Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator and Opera.

Last but not least Spybot-S&D contains some routines to find and correct invalid entries into
the registry.

Red entries indicate spyware problems that should be fixed to avoid security and/or privacy
problems. This is the only kind of problem that is preselected to be fixed.

Black entries are system internals. If you do not know what they mean, I would suggest to either
keep your fingers from it or visit the support forum.

Green entries indicate usage tracks. It can do no harm to remove these.

I personally only remove the Red entries as the Green entries remove items I use .

Make sure you use the SpyBot > Online > Update button regularly .

-----------------------------

http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareblaster.html

SpywareBlaster doesn't scan and clean for spyware - it prevents it from ever being installed.

How? By setting a "kill bit" for the CLSIDs of spyware ActiveX controls, it prevents the
installation of any of them from a webpage. You can run Internet Explorer with Active-X enabled,
but you will never even get a "Yes/No" box popped up, asking you to install a spyware Active-X
control (Internet Explorer will never download or run it!). All other Active-X controls or
plug-ins will work fine.

The SpywareBlaster database contains information on these known spyware Active-X controls. Make
sure you run the Check For Updates feature frequently to get the latest database! (And make sure
you check the new items to protect your system against them!)

As a side benefit, setting this "kill bit" will also prevent the spyware Active-X from running,
in many cases, if it is already installed on your system.*

--------------------------------

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/spywareguard.html

SpywareGuard provides a real-time protection solution against spyware that is a great addition
to SpywareBlaster's protection method.

An anti-virus program scans files before you open them and prevents execution if a virus is
detected - SpywareGuard does the same thing, but for spyware! And you can easily have an
anti-virus program running alongside SpywareGuard.


Features Listing: Fast scanning engine
Scans exe and cab files - the two most popular file types for distributing spyware
Signature-based scanning - for known spyware (list)
Heuristic/generic detection capabilities - some spyware programs can be detected even if the
code undergoes significant changes
Small size - with a small size and small definition sizes, download and updates are quick
SG Control Panel - provides easy access to help and integration options
SG LiveUpdate - provides an easy updating solution
Spyware files are blocked before being opened or run - they are not simply shut down after they
are loaded in memory (and after they have performed their tasks)
The full path to the spyware executable is provided on the alert screen
Once a spyware file is detected and blocked from running, the options are provided to either
continue or to delete the spyware file
It's a free download

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.x9000.net/

Xen V1.79b by Paul Brown May 2002
x9000@techie.com
compatible with 95/98/98SE/ME/NT/2000/XP

WHAT IS XEN ?
Xen is a collection of files I have put together and for which many
people find very useful.

Want to cleanup your hard drive of all the junk that builds up over time
and delete the trails that may lead people to who you are and what you
do online? With this tool, you can delete cached files, history, URLs,
cookies and so much more !

Xen cleans up more items then any other programs currently on the market,
is completely free and is very small in size, unlike other bloated
cleanup programs out there. Xen can remove your autocomplete history,
preventing anyone from seeing any terms you've typed into a search
engine's field. It removes temporary files, deletes your recent files,
registry history, media player history, findfile history, open/save
history, common temporaroy files and so much more ! It has one hell of a
major cleanup option which checks for hundreds of programs and deletes
their temporary files and recent history.

If this wasn't enough Xen can also backup and restore your drive, registry
key files and user profiles. If detected Xen will also backup your outlook
files, pgp keys, tiny firewall configs and my documents etc ! Xen can also
optimise your registry and has a basic check and removal for trojans and
spyware. All this and around 350 k in size !

With Xen comes 'Xenclean' and is useful to have starting up with your computer
or on demand and is only about 20k in size. For the advanced users out there
check out the 'Tweaking and Optimising' Windows document that comes with Xen.

FEATURES OF XEN INCLUDE
- protects privacy and frees up disk space
- runs on win 95,98,98SE,ME,NT,2000 and XP
- cleans up more temporary files than any other cleanup program
- cleans up browser cache completely ! (even index.dat)
- cleans out cookie files completely ! (even index.dat
- cleans up web history files completely ! (even history.dat)
- cleans up recent history
- cleans up and optimizes your registry
- removes application debugging information
- removes temporary pc health files
- removes temporary setup files
- removes temp files left behind by windows
- cleans up literally 100's and 100's of different temporary files
- cleans up your history trails in windows and also in 100's of different programs
- cleans out registry entries and optimises registry
- cleans out some major spyware that is out there and stops it from starting up
- cleans recycle bin
- scandisk and defrag options for startup
- backs up and restores your registry and keyfiles
- backs up and restores your root files
- backs up and restores your user profiles
- backs up your my documents
- backs up your outlook address book and data
- backs up your pgp keys if exist
- backs up drive completely to another drive
- backs up and restores your CMOS
- backs up and restores your master boot record
- security check for trojans
- security for VBS scripts and other scripts
- automatically detects user profiles and utilises them, even in windows 9x
- frees up memory on exit
- self sufficient and creates its own files
- saves and restores your icon layout on desktop