This post is part of the user recommendation marathon where users recommend their questions to us.

Our regular reader Vishnu asks us, “I have heard about Index.dat files and that they can store lots of information about the sites I browse, is there a way I can get rid of the files so that no one can know which sites I have browsed”

Hi Vishnu, thanks for taking the time to ask us this question. We will detail in this post, how you can delete index.dat files to get rid of your Internet activities and history.

Index.dat files are basically data files that can contain information about the sites you visited using Internet Explorer. The file acts as a database of information about your browsing habits and includes URLs you visited, cookies, search queries and files you opened using the browser.

That said privacy has always been a concern with index.dat files, since they cannot be deleted easily using the regular methods. The best and easiest way to delete index.dat file is by using CCleaner, a free software that helps you clear unwanted information from your PC.

Once you have downloaded and installed CCleaner, run the software and choose the option to delete index.dat file by selecting it from the options under Internet Explorer, once you have selected or de-selected the other options click on the button to run the cleaner.

After the cleaner has completed, the index.dat file will not hold any information from your previous browsing solving your privacy concerns.

There are several softwares which charge you for doing the same thing, but like always we find a better solution. So the next time you have a query or a question, you know the best way to figure it out, contact us with your queries and we will try our best to find the best solution for it.

Hope this answered your question Vishnu, feel free to send us your queries anytime.

Download CCleaner