Hidden Files and Folders

[TinCanKenny]

Why are the temporary internet files and folders hidden in Windows 7 Pro?

 

[logicearth]

Cause they are?

 

[Alejandro85]

No idea why really, it has been designed that way by IE developers and maintained over many versions now. It doesn't make much sense to me, since the browser's cache isn't anything "dangerous", but it's easier to make explorer show the files anyway.

 

[Brink]

Hello Kenny, and welcome to Seven Forums.

That folder is hidden because it's a protected operating system file, and so you will not see it since you should not mess with them.

 

[TinCanKenny]

No idea why really, it has been designed that way by IE developers and maintained over many versions now. It doesn't make much sense to me, since the browser's cache isn't anything "dangerous", but it's easier to make explorer show the files anyway.

Thanks for the reply Alejandro.......I have been a long time XP Pro guy and it used to be quite simple to go here: C:\Documents and Settings\main user\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files and you would be able to see all the temporary internet files in one place.

With Windows 7 Pro, I go here:
C:\Users\main user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low\Content.IE5\A0UKRFK1..............and there are 32 folders with 8 numbers/letters like A0UKRFK1 listed under Content.IE5 which makes it really hard to find anything as you have to open each Folder until you find what you are looking for.

 

[Alejandro85]

In fact, the true structure of temporary internet files is what your Win7 shows, with all those rare names and files scattered everywhere. In XP, Windows Explorer "lies" to you by showing all files together (this is controlled by the file desktop.ini there, just delete using DOS and you'll get the same). What I don't understand is why it isn't working on Win7 in the same way as it did in XP.

Anyway, I think there is an easier way. If all you want is to look at the cache's content and copy files out of there, this little program may help: Play offline/Save .flv video files from Web browser cache
(while it says "video", it really can show all files there).

 

[TinCanKenny]

Hello Kenny, and welcome to Seven Forums.

That folder is hidden because it's a protected operating system file, and so you will not see it since you should not mess with them.

Hi Brink..........I'm not making any changes or messing around in there. I usually dump the temporary internet files weekly but always like to go in and have a look before I send it off to cyberspace.

TinCanKenny

 

[TinCanKenny]

In fact, the true structure of temporary internet files is what your Win7 shows, with all those rare names and files scattered everywhere. In XP, Windows Explorer "lies" to you by showing all files together (this is controlled by the file desktop.ini there, just delete using DOS and you'll get the same). What I don't understand is why it isn't working on Win7 in the same way as it did in XP.

Anyway, I think there is an easier way. If all you want is to look at the cache's content and copy files out of there, this little program may help: Play offline/Save .flv video files from Web browser cache
(while it says "video", it really can show all files there).

Thanks Alejandro....

 

[nilank]

Why are the temporary internet files and folders hidden in Windows 7 Pro?

Simple and straightforward answer is that Microsoft does want inexperienced users to mess with the temp files which might result in the browser being not able to launch or display webpages properly due to messed up files.

 

[TinCanKenny]

Why are the temporary internet files and folders hidden in Windows 7 Pro?

Simple and straightforward answer is that Microsoft does want inexperienced users to mess with the temp files which might result in the browser being not able to launch or display webpages properly due to messed up files.

I get that part Nilank but I am still having a problem sorting out everything that is in the Windows 7 temporary internet files and where it is "all" stored. If I navigate to
C:\Users\mainuser\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files and check the properties, it shows that I have 469mb in there. Then when I navigate to: C:\Users\mainuser\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low\Content.IE5 it displays the 32 folders that are listed under Low\Content.IE5, the properties of those folders only total 102mb. So this leads me to believe that 367mb are hidden somewhere else and I would like to find them.
Also I would like to know the purpose of setting a recommended limit of 250mb for the temporary internet files as nothing seems to happen if you exceed that limit.

 

[nilank]

Since I don't use IE, I don't have much idea of where and how IE stores/manages temp files but I got this:



That's the temp folder. That's all I know.

 

[Jacee]

You could try unhide ... to see what and where they're hidden

Unhide.exe (http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/grinler/unhide.exe) (by Grinler)
Once the program has been downloaded, double-click on the Unhide.exe icon on your desktop and allow the program to run. This program will remove the +H, or hidden, attribute from all the files on your hard drives. If there are any files that were purposely hidden by you, you will need to hide them again after this tool is run."

 

[TinCanKenny]

You could try unhide ... to see what and where they're hidden

Unhide.exe (http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/grinler/unhide.exe) (by Grinler)
Once the program has been downloaded, double-click on the Unhide.exe icon on your desktop and allow the program to run. This program will remove the +H, or hidden, attribute from all the files on your hard drives. If there are any files that were purposely hidden by you, you will need to hide them again after this tool is run."

Hi Jacee........it's way past my bedtime so will have a look at this tomorrow. Thanks for sending it my way.

 

[cyrilhubert]

I understand what you meant.

Here is my rant:
Since Windows Vista, all internet webpages or files viewed by the user(s) is (are) viewed as dangerous. MS downgraded these files as security threats. So, these internet webpages are hidden or jumbled up in different TIFs subfolders.

 

[TinCanKenny]

You could try unhide ... to see what and where they're hidden

Unhide.exe (http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/grinler/unhide.exe) (by Grinler)
Once the program has been downloaded, double-click on the Unhide.exe icon on your desktop and allow the program to run. This program will remove the +H, or hidden, attribute from all the files on your hard drives. If there are any files that were purposely hidden by you, you will need to hide them again after this tool is run."

Back to it this morning........this looks like some third party program to open all the hidden files on my computer because of some "infection" and I don't think I want to go there. I'm a bit surprised that your link is the actual "executable" as someone could accidentally install this program if they did not know what they were doing.

 

[Alejandro85]

I get that part Nilank but I am still having a problem sorting out everything that is in the Windows 7 temporary internet files and where it is "all" stored. If I navigate to
C:\Users\mainuser\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files and check the properties, it shows that I have 469mb in there. Then when I navigate to: C:\Users\mainuser\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low\Content.IE5 it displays the 32 folders that are listed under Low\Content.IE5, the properties of those folders only total 102mb. So this leads me to believe that 367mb are hidden somewhere else and I would like to find them.
Also I would like to know the purpose of setting a recommended limit of 250mb for the temporary internet files as nothing seems to happen if you exceed that limit.

You got it a bit wrong. It effectively have 2 "temporary internet files" for the IE cache. The one on AppData\Local is the one for "normal" browsing and another in AppData\Low used when using the so-called "protected mode IE" which runs at low integrity, which cannot be shared for security reasons.
They are 2 completely different folders which adds to the storage used by IE, generated by the fact that IE can run in both low and medium integrity levels. They aren't a "copy" of any sort of each other, so you must account them separately. In total in you case, you have 571MB in use for that.

The 250MB limit is just a value for limiting the new content there, rather arbitrarily. The browser will store contents viewed up to that limit, and from that onwards it just deletes the oldest to keep inside the limit, so it doesn't grows indefinitely. No idea how does that behaves if files are already there exceeding that limit.

 

[TinCanKenny]

I get that part Nilank but I am still having a problem sorting out everything that is in the Windows 7 temporary internet files and where it is "all" stored. If I navigate to
C:\Users\mainuser\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files and check the properties, it shows that I have 469mb in there. Then when I navigate to: C:\Users\mainuser\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low\Content.IE5 it displays the 32 folders that are listed under Low\Content.IE5, the properties of those folders only total 102mb. So this leads me to believe that 367mb are hidden somewhere else and I would like to find them.
Also I would like to know the purpose of setting a recommended limit of 250mb for the temporary internet files as nothing seems to happen if you exceed that limit.

You got it a bit wrong. It effectively have 2 "temporary internet files" for the IE cache. The one on AppData\Local is the one for "normal" browsing and another in AppData\Low used when using the so-called "protected mode IE" which runs at low integrity, which cannot be shared for security reasons.
They are 2 completely different folders which adds to the storage used by IE, generated by the fact that IE can run in both low and medium integrity levels. They aren't a "copy" of any sort of each other, so you must account them separately. In total in you case, you have 571MB in use for that.

The 250MB limit is just a value for limiting the new content there, rather arbitrarily. The browser will store contents viewed up to that limit, and from that onwards it just deletes the oldest to keep inside the limit, so it doesn't grows indefinitely. No idea how does that behaves if files are already there exceeding that limit.

I am still a bit confused on this issue. You say there are two temporary internet files for the IE cache but when I go to the control panel>internet options>delete history, and delete temporary internet files, cookies, history, download history, form data, passwords, and active x filtering leaving only the "Preserve Favorites website data" unchecked, it does not delete everything in the temporary internet files, it leaves 364mb of data still in there. This is very confusing to me in that they only recommend that you allow 250mb for the temporary internet files and there is more than that in there before you start browsing????

 

[cyrilhubert]

Well, that is true. When I deleted my cache, I was shocked to see nothing was deleted. Actually, only the non-hidden IE TIFs were deleted and the rest hidden files were intact.

So, it's time wasting session again, if you have the time.

I 1st learn the hard way. DO NOT follow this advice!

---> I downloaded nirsoft's video cache view (this pc of good stuff now contained some tracking malware if you downloaded and run it)

Search for any video you might have watched. It will show the contents location.
Saved the location ie C:\Users\xxx\ in notepad for future use.
Go to the index directory you will see the rest of the hidden folders or use wildcards *.* in the search box to find what ever you want or delete the selected file types.

That's what I did to find the hidden TIF locations 3 yrs ago. Now, nirsoft's video cache view is mined with tracking malware, I do not advise you to use it.

If you open a webpage from TIF it's just a page with words without the rests.
What you viewed in IE and want it in completeness (whole webpages with pics) you must saved immediately while ONLINE.
Unlike in Win98 to XP, IE has been programmed to jumbled up the hidden files and does not allow the webpages with contents to remain in 1 complete entity in the TIF.

 

[Frank1]

Here is my opinion on the temporary internet files. Remember it's only an opinion and there are members here who know a lot more about this stuff than I do, so I would like to hear how some of the others feel about it. Are any of you old enough to remember the cars of years ago?
The cars had a hand crank so that in case the car wouldn't start, you could crank it manually to get it started. The crank in those day was a good and necessary thing to have. Of course the cars of today do not need cranks so the manufacture does not put one on. Here's how I feel about it. When Microsoft puts in the temporary internet files, it's like putting a crank on a new car. Years ago internet connections were very, very slow. With the temporary internet files, if you went back to a site that you were previously on, it didn't take long to load because of the information from the site was already on your computer. Since connections now are do much faster, they are not only un-necessary , but if you have too many on they could slow down your computer. I think I am correct in what I said (or at least partially correct). If not, my feelings will not be hurt if you tell me that I have it all wrong. I feel the same way about the page file which was originally called the swap file. When I got my first computer RAM was $50.00 a meg (not a gig but a meg). Consequently we didn't have nearly as much RAM on our system in those days. So MS came up with the swap file. With our RAM now in hundreds of meg which is measured now in GB, I don't see why MS can't do away with the RAM. So I think that temporary internet files and page file are like putting a crank on a new car. Again, I've been known to be wrong so, I would like someone else's opinion.

 

[cyrilhubert]

Hi Frank,
I agree with you. MS thinks everyone is rich and works with all the OEM to push for upgrades all the time. I like the old stuff like Win 98 to XP where TIF is not hidden and everything is arranged according to your likings.