as follows: 1. Malware: 2. Spyware: This is an aid that gathers 3 User A runs Internet Explorer from his own account, but under the credentials of user B. This is achieved by using the runas command, e.g. . The functionality of runas is provided and supported by Windows XP Secondary Logon service. User A quits Internet Explorer and logs out of his account. However, due to a bug in Windows XP, the svchost.exe process that hosts the Secondary Logon service retains the ownership of critical Internet Explorer data files belonging to user B and located in B's profile directories (for example, index.dat file located in directory). For this reason these files remain inaccessible for writing. User B logs into his account and runs Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer is unable to obtain write access to the aforementioned files, which makes it quietly recreate the supporting directories under the current location as a fail-safe measure. The data from the original directories is not copied to the new ones. Internet Explorer will continue to use the directories under until the files at the original location become writable again. The only known way to release the lock on the aforementioned files is to reboot the OS. One can also kill the offending instance of svchost.exe, thus releasing the lock, but this normally renders the machine unusable, since it also terminates all the services hosted by the same instance of svchost.exe. Also, the Windows Webclient (MRxDAV) is, however, known to create temporary copies of downloaded files under . Windows Vista On Windows Vista, the cache for Internet Explorer 7 is usually located at where is an environment variable pointing to (note that the checkbox for 'Hide protected operating system files' under 'Folder Options' must be unchecked and the 'Show hidden files and folders' option enabled for the files to be visible in Windows Explorer). For all other Trident-based applications, the cache is located at . Like on Windows XP, the location of the cache can be changed by moving the folder location in Internet Explorer or by changing a value in the registry. References Internet Explorer Windows files