My son left me with a problem. He uses my Dell, running Windows XP home.
When I try and access my index.dat file, I am getting nothing. I managed to find out why. It is now ..."Compressed on start-up"
Is there any way around this?

Try Right clicking the index.dat and going to properties then advanced untick the compress box

Cant find any index.dat on the system to click ; It is like it doesn't exist

Lead me to it like I was old and half-blind. Oh, wait a min. i am......

Open explorer (Windows key + E) go to tools - folder options - view - show hidden files and folders

Its a hidden file try searching for it using the Windows search function

To be honest theres a lot of index.dat files on your PC so you'll have to search for it let me know how it goes

Thanks TA,
I will try the Explorer win key + E to start .