Hello.
While making some search for files in the system, I found about 1400 .xml files. Opened some of them randomly and saw traces of Internet searches I entered here and there in the google search box.
Can such certain files be deleted after verifying the inside text ?
Can you recommend for a program that finds text inside document files ?
Answers will be appreciated.
Thanks
Motim
I did a search for *.xml and got over 12,000 hits. If I deleted them I doubt I would notice any system speedup. You could copy them all to a .rar file with 10% error correction keeping the paths intact. Then send them to the recycle bin and see if you notice anything go wrong. I say WinRar because .zip has no error correction. Just for this you could install the WinRar trial. Many programs can unrar the archive including 7-zip.
Edit: Some programs have configuration info in .xml files. So may Windows itself. Any space saving should be negligible. Unless I had 5000 xml in the same folder slowing down file operations I would not bother with them. But if you want to experiment make sure you can get the system back as it was to avoid headaches. An imaging backup may be a good option if the WinRar approach seems like too much manual detail work.
I have also looked into the subject. My conclusion is it's very difficult to find out what the xml files are for.
My answer to the problems is pretty simple.
Use Ccleaner on default settings along with Disk Clean Up.
What ever xml files are left leave them alone.
Also do your normal security scans to verify their are no bad guys hiding in the leftover xml files.
This information here might help you understand things better. Their are thousands more sites if one really wants to know more.
What are XML documents?
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