IE 6.0 - can't delete a (weird) folder

Factual Questions
1

I was looking in the IE folder on my computer (running WinME & IE 6.0) and there’s a folder under the c:/windows/temporary internet files/Content.IE5 folder. I click on it and it tells me the folder contains 104 objects (some folders, some files, but all with weird names - all symbols and numbers, etc) and is 225Gb in size.

Pretty good considering I only have an 80Gb drive. When I try to delete it, I get a message telling me the folder is too big for the recycle bin and would I like to permanently delete it. I say yes and it tells me “Cannot find the specified file. Make sure you specify the correct path and filename”.

WTF?

If I click on an object in the right side of the window and check the properties, I get info telling me the file was created in 1601 (or some other bizarre year). I can’t delete or move any of the files without getting the above message.

I’ve tried deleting the files under Internet Options/Tools, but it doesn’t work. It also causes Window Washer to stop with the message “List index out of bounds”.

I’ve run Spybot, AdAware, and my anti-virus software, but nothing unusual shows up.

I am baffled.

2

Sounds like a file system error. The first thing I would try would be to run ScanDisk or some similar utility.

3

No, believe it or not, that’s by design. (Bad design, but yeah). See here for details.

4

I went to the site and tried the cleanup procedure and it worked!

Thanks!

One question: why does this happen? Why does it HAVE to happen?

5

Doesn’t have to - MS just decided they’d make it like that. Same thing happens with Outlook, IIRC. Beats me!