Alan's Tips: Killing an invisible cookie

Alan, I have a cookie sitting in C:Windows\Temp.  When I try to delete it I see access denied.   If I click on the MSDOS icon on the desktop and go to that directory I can see that the file is there but again I can't delete it.  ATTRIB  marks the file with A  The file contains 0 bytes. When I reboot in the DOS mode and go to that directory the file  does not appear.   Weird!!

Pretty mysterious! (Ain't PCs peculiar?) Actually, Windows can be set up to show hidden files, which are invisible at a DOS prompt. That could be what you're seeing.

If you have a FAT/FAT32 file system, try booting to a DOS floppy, then going to that folder and typing:

ATTRIB -R -H -S *.* (assuming that ATTRIB is accessible from your DOS floppy or if your boot floppy is the same DOS version as in your C:\Windows\Command folder-- if you're using Win95/98/ME you can that version of ATTRIB)

then

DEL *.*

See if that kills it!


Feb 27 2004