Archive through January 22, 2003
MoveCloseDeleteAdmin

TV ClubHouse: Archives: 2003 January: Computer Problem - I need advice/help (ARCHIVE): Archive through January 22, 2003

Conejo

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 11:10 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks Crossfire! I work for a small company and we only have two computers that are networked so I'm not sure what kind of info he could retrieve. My boss doesn't know very much about computers, however, I'm sure he could have the guy that helps us when we have CPU problems check this for him. I don't think he would, but it is always a possibility. Yes, I do need instructions on emptying my browsers and clearing the history, if you don't mind. (I'm not that computer literate either, lol)
Thanks!

Crossfire

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 11:16 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Oh, I see.

A workplace with only two computers might not have all the infrastructure I described. It all depends on how you are connected to the internet.

If you can tell me what internet browser i.e. Internet Explorer or Netscape etc, you use I will instruct on clearing the cache and history.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the info is already posted somewhere, but I don't mind covering it again.

Conejo

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 11:34 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Crossfire, we use Microsoft Internet Explorer, RoadRunner Cable and a Linksys DSL router (which I believe links the two together-we only have one cable line). I do remember the CPU guy talking about a firewall at one time, but I don't have any further info on that.

I also figured that this has probably been covered before and I looked for a little while and gave up. I do appreciate your covering it again, I originally asked this question last week but no one responded ( I think you guys were involved in solving a "real" problem and my question got lost in the shuffle)LOL!

Crossfire

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 11:51 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I see, your setup at work is quite similar to mine at home.

Here is the good news: Unless your boss or his computer help took other steps to specifically capture that info, the Linksys router itself does not maintain any long term logs of traffic.

Clearing the information from your computer is just a matter of clicking on the 'Tools' menu item, and selecting 'Internet Options'. That will pop up a new window. In the new window, you should see a section called 'Temporary Internet file' with a button labeled 'Delete files' in it. Clicking that button will clear the browsers cache.

In that same window, you should see a section called 'History' with a button labeled 'Clear History'. That will clear your browsers history logs.

That should do the trick, if not, just let me know.

Sorry for not catching your previous request, I have no idea what happened there.

Conejo

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 12:12 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks so much Crossfire! I just followed your instructions and I believe everything worked. While I was doing that, I looked under "settings" - "view files" and there are alot of files in there with dates and times. Are those what are referred to as "cookies"? Also, under history it ask you how many days to retain the history and I set this on 1 day months ago but it never seems to delete the history automatically. Maybe that's not what it's supposed to do (as I said I'm not very computer literate)

Crossfire

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 12:32 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Hmmm, now things get more complicated.

Yes, things left over after using the 'Delete Files' button should only be cookies and possibly a few other special files.

You could get 'busted' by your cookies as well, so it is something else to consider, but they are a bit more tricky to manage.

I suppose I should also point out at this time that Internet Explorer tends to do a fairly poor job of deleting its cache at time. The items in the cache are tracked through index files, and those indexes sometimes lose track of what all has been stored, and when you clear the cache, these orphaned files will remain on the hard disk in hidden directories. Getting at these files is usually beyond the skill of most novices, but just be aware, that sometimes clearing the cache does leave things behind.

I think the history tracking also suffers from problems as well. One of the things the history does, is keep track of visited links. You know how once you visit a link on some pages, it shows in a different color? That is the history tracking. If you clear the history, that link should change back to the color it was prior to your visiting it. In a round about way, it provides a bit of a roadmap of visited sites and links. What I suspect happens, is that after one day or whatever it is set to, prior visited links change to the unread color, but the files in the cache remain until manually cleared or overwritten by the filesize constraints on the cache.

I hope this is not all mumbo jumbo to you, but there it is. :)

At the end of the day, the only one true solution to the issue is to not visit the sites in the first place. /lecture

Conejo

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 12:46 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks for the info., I think I understand what you are talking about!maybe. I don't have a computer at home, so this is the only way I get to visit all of the great people at TVCH - so I'm going to continue and hope I don't get busted! heheh

Twiggyish

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 01:46 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I find the tools clear Temp option doesn't always clear everything. I'm always helping people do this at work.

1. Click on the Start button on the lower right.
2. Click on Find or Search files.
*Make sure it says Search "C" drive
3. Type in Temp and click find.
4. Click on Temporary Internet Files.
5. Click on Edit at the top (Menu bar)
6. Click on Select All
7. Press delete.

This clears them from Temp..if the Internet tools doesn't fully clear them out.

1. Click on the Start.
2. Click on Find/Search
3. Type in Cookies
4. Click on Cookies in the bottom pane.
5. Do a Select all from Edit
6. Delete Cookies.

You will get an error while deleting cookies that says you cannot delete Index. That's normal.

This fully deletes everything. Then go to your recycle bin and clear everything.

(Not that I know anything about surfing at work)

Bryan

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 02:39 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
LOL Twiggyish, I like your style

Crossfire

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 02:53 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Good instructions, but I would just add as a sidenote that they don't work for all versions of windows, XP in particular and kills all the cookies, I like my cookies. :)

Abbynormal

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 02:59 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Omg! I have about 100 icons on my desktop! I don't know how they got there but they are important looking stuff. Some are those little gear looking things with .dll on them and some are those scroll looking things. Can someone tell me what in the spain is going on? How do I get rid of these things?

Crossfire

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:04 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Oh boy!

Question: What was the last thing you did before that happened?

Take your best guess at what happened.

Things that could cause that are accidental drags, pastes, copies, and unzips. Where you doing any of those things?

Abbynormal

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:09 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I wasn't doing anything I swear! I was just surfing around on here, then I closed out TVCH to get off and that's when I saw all that stuff. Yikes! I promptly opened IE and came right back here and asked my question. You're scaring me.

Abbynormal

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:11 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
or scarring. Whichever, you're doing both. lol

Crossfire

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:12 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
ME? What'd I do? Sorry about that. :)

Ok, lets try another angle. What are the names of a couple of the files, that might help determine what they are, and where they should be.

Mosessupposes

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:17 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Abbynormal, do they look anything like the icons below?:

icons

Abbynormal

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:18 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks for helping me. Ok, one is a blue circle with a white arrow, it says comet below. I assume that is that comet curser I have seen before. One of the gear things is csapputil.dll, and one of the scrolls is controlpanel. Omg! What have I done?? Most of the scroll things look like important stuff and any gear thing freaks me out. They are literally ALL OVER my screen, I am sure there are many more I can't see.

Abbynormal

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:20 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
yes, Moses they look exactly like that with a bunch of those red irfanview ones and one that looks like a notepad.

Mosessupposes

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:27 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
These are the IrfanView and Notepad icons...do they match?:

icons

Abbynormal

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:28 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
the notepad doesn't. It looks more like a regular screen you would get with the blue at the top.

Draheid

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:32 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Abbynormal: First off, don't panic. IMO, it's not that serious of a problem. You may have just inadvertantly copied some files onto your desktop or extracted an archive there. Neither is cause for panic.

Can you type a list of the filenames and extensions so we might suggest what is safe to delete and what you might need to save.

Crossfire

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:33 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Hmmm, csapputil.dll seems to be a comet cursor file as well. Stupid program :).

I'd need to see the names of more of the files to make a call.

This is either serious, or annoying, not sure which yet.

Mosessupposes

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:34 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Okay, first off it is safe to click on the IrfanView icons. They are either shortcuts to the IrfanView program or are associated with picture files on your computer. When you click on them...either IrfanView will open...or a picture will open...you can't create any damage doing this.

Crossfire

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:34 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Whoops, I did not see Draheid's message before mine. Seems we are both after the same info. :)

Mosessupposes

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 03:37 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
If they are copies they will likely have a number in parenthesis, sort of like "menu(1).js"