[Thinkpad] Re: More on Internet Explorer

>The practical problem is that my HD keeps creating
>and filling up a subdirectory "temporary internet files"
>and tons of crud of the form DESKTOP.IE5 and various
>gibberish subdirectories filled with things I never wanted.
>
>This is a big problem for us. I spend hours every few
>months cleaning the Augean Stables of their Win98 machines

Jeffrey
I believe this is evidence of IE's being programmed to keep hidden
duplicate copies of your browser cache and e-mail.

According to this site:
<http://www.fuckmicrosoft.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml>
not only does IE keep hidden copies of the cache and E-mail it also
collaborates with Windows to make these files impossible to delete under
Windows (and hard to find under DOS).

Obviously the site author has a bias towards MS but if he's right
it means that your disk drive is going to be taken over with these
hidden files. Not to mention the privacy concerns of having hidden
copies of your browser cache and e-mail.

When I'm especially paranoid I think it must be done to make your
computer slower and flakier till you go out and buy a new machine and OS.
I keep meaning to check this out but you would need a FAT 16 Windows
installation so you could boot to DOS and look for the alleged hidden
files.
Perhaps someone on the list could look at their drive (I'm sure linux
could handle it) and see if these duplicate files actually exist.

My solid state 560x (which doesn't have IE on it this week) was set up
as FAT 32 so i can't see anything if I boot to DOS.
Next time I'll go FAT 16, i can't imagine it would make a huge
difference with an 800 Mb drive...

>Also my wife and daughter keep getting infected with
>malware which rides on IE e.g. surfgrim, hotbar.

I think IE is not as much of a security problem as Outlook Express and
Windows Scripting Host both of which can be omitted with 98Lite.

>I bought a program called 98lite from
><http://www.98lite.net/>. Is this the same thing?
>
>Jeffrey Race

That's what you need for Win98. They also make a version for Win2K/XP
Good luck and feel free to send any questions my way.

-- 
Andrew in Ann Arbor
technology is the answer, what was the question?
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