Trivial MS secret & Win98 weirdities.

[Guv]

My system has a lot of partitions, each of which has a recycle bin.

I recently discovered that (except for C-drive), all the recycle bins contain a Desktip.ini file. Explorer does not show these files. Neither the Disk Cleanup utility nor the empty recycle bin function will remove these files. You need some third party utility like Ztree to see these files.

I have two systems. My older system has 73 Desktop.ini files, about 20 of which seem to be temporary internet files. The lnewer system has about 20-30 of these files.

I am not sure if the older system has more because it has had more time to accumulate them, or it has more because it has more folders.

Do any of you know anything about the above? I wonder why they exist.

It looks to me as though the files in the recycle bins are required, and MS tries to hide them from the user so he will not erase them, and cause some problem.

I wonder what else MS keeps secret for our own good.

I hate condescending bastards who try to protect me from my own stupidity. Damn it all, give me the information and let me take care of myself. One of my pet peeves is the governement trying to protect fools from their folly, which cannot be done. In the meantime, they create restictions and red tape that annoy the hell out of the rest of us.

I tolerated my mother who did not think I could cross a busy street on my own when I was forty, while everybody else seemed to think I was as least a bit smarter than a moron. If I could do something about it, I would not tolerate the MS Big brother attitude, although I otherwise am satisfied with their behavior and products.

[denniswrenn]

go to find files/folders, then search in the c:\windows\temporary internet files folder. You will find many directories under content.ie5 that are not there in explorer...

[CiberTHuG]

Originally posted by Guv
If I could do something about it, I would not tolerate the MS Big brother attitude, although I otherwise am satisfied with their behavior and products.

Don't use Windows. I try not to.

[Tygur]

These are hidden files. All you gotta to to see them is set windows to show them. Look in the Folder Options window. I think it's under the "View" tab.

[Sastraxi]

These are for the special folders, like how it locks windows and \system from viewing until you click the link.

You'll also find (probably) an equal number of folder.htt files laying around. The folders themselves are actually html files!!!

I designed a student login for a school once and I hid all of these folders, except for My Computer, Recycle Bin, C, My Documents. It was really easy do to (except for that darn microsoft integration, you could use windows from inside a common dialog box!!!)

[spetnik]

Originally posted by Sastraxi
you could use windows from inside a common dialog box!!!)

Yes, when I was in high school, I broke security that way. At the login, I pressed F1, and then in the file-open commondialog, i selected "all files", rite clicked explorer, clicked "open", and whala! I got into windows w/ out loggin in!!
hehe :D (they kicked my off the comps 4 good and fined me $75 :rolleyes: )

[Tygur]

Oh ok.

The desktop.ini in the recycle bins is only hidden. What happens is once you send explorer to that directory (Drive:\Recycled), explorer changes to a view of the recycle bin. Because desktop.ini is not in the recycle bin, it doesn't show.

[Guv]

You need a File Manager other than Windows Explorer to investigate certain weirdities. Explorer knows about Windows OS design and acts accordingly.

I use Ztree as a file manager for functions which Windows Explorer either does not do or does clumsily.

Ztree shows me that the Desktop.ini files in all Recyled folders are either updated or created when you empty the Recycle Bin.

It also shows me that the Recycled folder contains a file named INFO2, which contains data required to restore files. For some reason, the files in the Recycled folder have different names (same extensions) from what is displayed by Explorer.

[simonm]

I hate condescending bastards who try to protect me from my own stupidity. Damn it all, give me the information and let me take care of myself. One of my pet peeves is the governement trying to protect fools from their folly, which cannot be done. In the meantime, they create restictions and red tape that annoy the hell out of the rest of us.

The government? You find some hidden files on your computer and you turn that into rage against the government?

I think 'red tape' is underrated. Do we have enough? Most people in society are so stupid that they need to be wrapped up in as much red tape as possible (or any other colour for that matter)! :rolleyes:

Why not go and live in Brasil? I hear they don't have much red tape over there but you might still have to use microsoft!

[spetnik]

Originally posted by simonm
wWhy not go and live in Brasil? I hear they don't have much red tape over there but you might still have to use microsoft!
Check this out (http://multimedia.mmm.com/mws/mediawebserver.dyn?WWWWWWECOgjWpzXWizXWWWwqAgZvvvvu-), 3M (makers of Scotch Tape) are now exporting red tape to brasil :rolleyes:
http://multimedia.mmm.com/mws/mediawebserver.dyn?WWWWWWECOgjWpzXWizXWWWwqAgZvvvvu-

[Guv]

Simonm: As a disciple of Ayn Rand, almost anything will cause me to rage about the government.

I am not interested in moving to another country because I do not know of any that would be better in the long run. The USA seems to find non revolutionary ways to swing pendulums back when they get too far in one direction. We got rid of McCarthyism, managed to get Nixon out of office, and put Agnew in jail. Too bad a lot of others escaped justice.

Just remember that the government does not have to be cost effective and they have the legal right to use lethal force, which makes them potentially more dangerous than anybody. You have a good chance of avoiding organized crime, and you cannot be forced to buy a car or any other consumer product. If you run afoul of the government, they will spend millions and much manpower to enforce their will, even though it might be a trivial matter and the citizen is on firm ethical ground. You should read about some of the IRS outrages and the evil application of forfeiture laws by the Justice Department.

A government is a necessary evil, which is likely to be better than anarchy in the so called Western democracies, but it can evolve into some really evil if not watched carefully.

[simonm]

A government is a necessary evil, which is likely to be better than anarchy in the so called Western democracies, but it can evolve into some really evil if not watched carefully.

The problem is that only the bad guys do well at politics. The nice people and those that have principles; go nowhere.