Keep track of your computer even while you’re away

Question: I suspect that someone is using my computer at work – maybe one of the security guards or a cleaner. The computer doesn’t have anything really business-focused on it, and it is not connected to a network.

I have been told that there’s a way I can see what activity has taken place on my computer using index.dat files. These are supposed to show me what files have been opened and what programs have been used. I can find some but I can’t view them.

Is this true? I can’t find any info about it. Thanks in advance for your help. – M.R.

Answer: There are a couple of things you can do to inspect the activity on your computer. One’s a software snooper program called SpectorSoft that you can install on your computer. It takes snapshots of the computer screen at regular intervals. You can view them later. You could run it during the times you are away from your computer and check out the activity when you return.

There are two products:

• Spector Pro records, e-mails, chats, keystrokes, web sites, and snaps screenshots.
• eBlaster watches what people on your computer do online and sends reports to your e-mail.

For more info see: The Spectorsoft web site

Another piece of gear you could use is called KeyKatcher. This device connects to your computer and captures keystrokes entered from the computer’s keyboard. For more info, see www.KeyKatcher.com .

You also mention the index.dat file. This is a file on Windows computers that contains a list of web addresses that have been visited using the Internet Explorer web browser on your computer.

You say the computer is not connected to a network, but I assume it does have a modem that can connect to the Internet. Inspecting the index.dat file will only be useful if you suspect that the perpetrator is accessing the Internet. It will allow you to see what websites have been visited, but does not show you any files on your hard drive or your network that someone other than you (or anybody, for that matter) may have accessed.

Index.dat also contains references to cookies, which are small files used to track web surfer movements through a site, or to store data such as user IDs and passwords used to access certain pages. Cookies are also used as shopping baskets on commerce Web pages. Only the web pages that create them can access cookies, or the person using the computer where the cookie files are stored.

Index.dat files allow Windows to find web files faster. They contain names of files that have been stored in the Temporary Internet Files folder. These files are usually either web pages visited using your computer or images viewed on the web because they appeared on those visited web pages.

is a file type known as a “system file”, so it is normally hidden from view if you search for it on your computer, but instructions on how to find them on your computer are below.

To view the contents of the index.dat files on your computer, you can use a free program called Spider 1.16. It can be downloaded from http://www.fsm.nl/ward/. Spider 1.16 also has a function that will wipe the index.dat files clean.

Here’s how to locate the index.dat files on your computer:

In Windows 95 and 98:
Click your Start button, then Find, next Files or Folders. A box will appear. In the Named: field, type index.dat. In the Look in: field, click the down arrow and choose My Computer. Check the Include subfolders box. Then click Find now.

In Windows XP:
Click Start, then Search, then For Files and Folders. Next click All Files and Folders, then type in index.dat in the All or part of the file name box. Under the Look in option, choose My Computer. Then click More advanced options and check Search system folders as well as Search hidden files and folders.

All the files found will appear in a list, but you will not be able to remove them using your Delete key because they are always in use by Windows. To clear them, use the Spider 1.16 program mentioned above.

To clear all web surfing activity on a computer, you can use a program like Evidence Eliminator. It’s a good product, but their over-the-top Web site is … well, a little over the top. See it here.

More info about clearing web surfing activity can be seen in our Wipe adult content from your PC.