Hi. I'm one of the Windows 98 SE "dinosaurs" which may not be welcomed on a forum which excludes my OS from the title of what might otherwise be the correct location for my posting. Should I withdraw gracefully or may I ask for help with a Command Prompt problem, please. ? I have already studied your excellent Tutorial. Regards, Haba.

All are welcome. Please post a topic so that we may help you. And by the way, on behalf of the Bleeping Computer's community Welcome to Bleeping Computer.

By implication, 98 SE is included in the Windows 98 category, so you not only have posted in the correct place, but should in no sense feel excluded from this great user community. Please continue and ask your question.
Regards,
John

Thanks to acklan for your welcome and to John for your friendly response. This is my problem. I have been trying to do a Command Prompt exercise and coming to a halt at a particular response. The command is "copy c:\index.dat c:\windows\tempor~1\content. ie5" and the response is "overwrite c:\windows\tempo (Yes/No/All)?". I've been told that to answer "Yes", you should type a lower case "y" but the response I get is "Bad command or file name" and I'm stuck. !! Can you tell me if I'm going wrong somewhere or how to get over this problem,please. ? Regards, Haba.

Hi haba.
Don't use the tilde (~) in the path, spell it out completely.
c:\windows\temporary internet files\content.ie5\index.dat
If you look at the response to your command (overwrite c:\windows\tempo ) you can see that it's looking for a directory that doesn't exist.

Thanks HitSquad. I tried your suggested command a number of times but always got the response "Too many parameters" or "Bad command or file name". The command I quoted in my posting always gets me to the "Overwrite --- ?" question but I'm stuck there, because I can't find a way to answer it. !! Have you any suggestions,please.? I suppose it should be obvious but it ain't to me. !! Regards, Haba.

sorry haba, my bad. Leave the index.dat off the end of the command.
Try c:\windows\temporary internet files\content.ie5 instead.
I'm a little rustier then I thought.

Thanks agaiin HitSquad. Tried the above several times but got response "Too many parameters - Internet". This is the response I always get when I've typed in T.I.F.in full instead of "tempor~1", which I understand is MS "shorthand" !! I've fiddled about by adding or omitting or altering the order of the resourses but the only sequence that gets me to the "Overwrite --- ?" question is as follows. 1) echo index> c:\index.dat 2) dir c:\index.dat 3) copy c:\index.dat c:\windows\tempor~1\content.ie5 and I grind to a halt at the "Overwrite --- ?" response !! One reference I saw said to answer Yes, click on Yes and another said to type in a lower case y but I can't get either to work. I know what you mean about being rusty. I was 82 in April and would you believe that I'm expected to remember things I knew when I was 81. !! Any further guidance would be appreciated. Regards, Haba. Still

Hay there haba
Am I correct in thinking you want to "nuke" this file?
if so you may want to try this:
http://www.imilly.com/winclean.htm
works for me. (and it's free )

She explains it pretty well there on site.
HTH

Hi there haba! Pls. use double quotation marks to carry out the command:

So the syntax would be:

copy c:\index.dat "c:\windows\temporary internet files\content.ie5"

just affix the "/y" (w/o the quotes) at the end to automatically overwrite existing file.

hope this helps...

Thanks,no one. I have an old program (Spider) which deletes index.dat files and CCleaner which includes deleting them in it's functions. I have heard that it is possible to block them from ever getting onto your PC and that is what I am trying do . I've had a look at WinClean but I think it will only delete the files, which I can do already. Regards, Haba.

Thanks Trev. 1) I tried your suggestion but got the response "Too many parameters-- Internet". I always get this response when I type the TIF in full and have found that you have to use some MS "shorthand", which is "tempo~1" 2) This is my main problem, because all I can type-in when I'm trying to reply to the question which comes up-- " Overwrite c:\windows\tempo~1(Yes/No/All) ?"-- are upper and lower case Y/y,N/n and A/a . All my other keys are dead It's a real mystery to me.!!

Regards, Haba.

YW, haba .
you might find a few things here interesting to read
http://www.pcmus.com/optimise98.htm#osf

you may want to weight the risk on some of it.

hi there again haba!

Did you try my suggestion with the double quotation marks on "c:\windows\temporary internet files\content.ie5" ?

Hi Trev. Please see my post #12. Perhaps you have a solution to the "mystery" I mention at the end of it. ? Cheers, Haba.

[quote] you might find a few things here interesting to read
http://www.pcmus.com/optimise98.htm#osf
[\quote]

Thanks no one. I'll have a look at that forthwith. !! Cheers, Haba