Microsoft’s Really Hidden Files
- 1
- Add a Comment
There are folders on your computer that Microsoft has tried hard to keep secret. Within these folders you will find two major things: Microsoft Internet Explorer has not been clearing your browsing history after you have instructed it to do so, and Microsoft’s Outlook Express has not been deleting your e-mail correspondence after you’ve erased them from your Deleted Items bin. And believe me, that’s not even the half of it. When I say these files are hidden well, I really mean it. If you don’t have any knowledge of DOS then don’t plan on finding these files on your own. I say this because these files/folders won’t be displayed in Windows Explorer at all — only DOS. (Even after you have enabled Windows Explorer to “show all files.”) And to top it off, the only way to find them in DOS is if you knew the exact location of them. Basically, what I’m saying is if you didn’t know the files existed then the chances of you running across them is slim to slimmer. Details at http://microsuck.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml.
One Comment
Johnny Piratefish
July 8th, 2008
at 4:36pm
I found the really hidden files disturbing, but I did discover a nice utility that allows finding them more easily.
The package “unxutils.zip” is a zip file full of Unix utils compiled to run on Win95, and they still run on all versions of Windows since then. This package offers up utilities like grep, gawk, uniq, tar, wget and a number of other Linux utils that folks find useful.
One of those happens to be “ls” - the Linux directory listing tool - and it doesn’t care what Microsoft flags look or smell like - it just lists directories when asked - and it happens to include the “really hidden” stuff too. Now if someone could make a util that diff’s the entire drive based on what can be seen and what’s really hidden…
For those folks needing strong anti-spam, and want to build their own Linux server to do it, take a look at http://www.piratefish.org
If you’re wanting to download the “unxutils.zip” - just google for it, then download that package and unpack it into c:\unixutils\ or something - then edit your DOS path (one of the tabs in my computer properties) and append “C:\unixutils\usr\local\wbin;” onto the end of it - then these commands work everywhere.