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Retrieve Flash Movie In IE7 Cache Folder Of Windows Vista

Copyright © 07 May 2007 11:33

Earlier of February, I wrote a guide on saving flash video from Youtube, FLURL, etc. The trick is to locate the flash video (file with FLV file extension) from the Internet Explorer cache folder.

That works fine except for protected-mode IE7 of Windows Vista!
If you’re using IE6 SP2 or IE7 in Windows XP, you can easily find the flash video or picture files in the IE cache folder without much problem. But, if you’re viewing web pages with a protected mode of IE7 in Windows Vista, additional steps or tricks are required to locate and save the cached copy of flash video that stored into a low privilege Internet cache folder.
What’s protected mode in IE7 running on Windows Vista?

Protected mode in IE7 is a new security feature introduced for IE7 of Windows Vista edition only. Protected mode is not available to Windows XP edition. When Internet Explorer running in protected mode, the browser is essentially running as low privilege process and disallow the browser to write or read in location other than the low privilege Temporarily Internet Files folder (i.e. cache folder, temp folder, cookies folder, and history history)!

Having say that, the IE7 will be functioning exactly as a web browser, that cannot be hijacked by malware or malicious scripting code to place virus or spyware (such as keylogger or trojan) to the startup folder, the vulnerable Windows registry, or any part of the Windows Vista file system!

How to identify Windows Vista IE7 is running in protected mode?
  1. The IE7 status bar (the bottom-most of IE7) will display the browsing zone and protected mode status. For example, it will display as Internet | Protected Mode: On if you’re currently browsing this web page.
     
  2. Click the IE7 Tools menu, follow by Internet Options menu, click on Security tab. In the Security Level For This Zone, there is a check-box labelled as Enable Protected Mode. If it’s checked, protected mode is turned on.

How to turn off Windows Vista IE 7 protected mode?
  1. If you turn off Windows Vista User Access Control (UAC).
     
  2. If you’re running IE7 of Windows Vista with elevated privilege (with Administrator privileges). To run IE7 with elevated privilege, right-click IE7 icon in the Start menu or Quick Launch toolbar, and click the Run As Administrator option in the pop-up context menu.
     
  3. IE7 is browsing web pages inside trusted-zone or web pages (written by you) stored in local hard disk or storage media. However, if the web page was saved from un-trusted zone, such as Internet, which has Protected Mode enabled, then IE7 of Windows Vista will be running in protected mode as well!

How to locate and save flash video from low privilege cache folder when Windows Vista IE7 running in protected mode?

Locate the protected-mode IE7 cache folder in Windows Vista, where you can find the cached copy of flash video played in YouTube, FLURL, etc.This allows you to save a copy of flash video that you’ve watched in YouTube / FLURL for offline playback with flash video player.

Assuming that the IE7 cache folder or Temporarily Internet Files folder (TIF) is in default installation location, you can open an elevated Windows Vista Command Prompt and execute these commands at C: drive.
cd %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low
start .

and jump to step 3. Otherwise, follow these steps from step 1
  1. Click on the IE7 Tools menu and Internet Options, follow by clicking the Settings button of Browsing History section
     
  2. Click on the View Files button to open the IE7 Temporarily Internet Files folder (i.e. cache folder, or TIP).
     
  3. Click on the Organize drop-down menu of Windows Explorer (located at the top-left corner by default)
     
  4. Click on Folder and Search Options menu, follow by the View tab
     
  5. Double-click to expand the Hidden Files And Folders sub-options. Click Show Hidden Files And Folders to turn this option.
     
  6. Two lines below it, there is another option called Hide Protected Operating System Files (Recommended). Unchecked the check-box to turn off this option.
     
  7. Click Apply and OK to close the Folder Options dialog box.
     
  8. Press ALT+D or click the blank area of Windows Explorer Address Bar where the IE7 cache folder path is displayed and append \low\content.ie5 to the IE7 cache folder path (see picture below) followed by pressing ENTER key.
     
  9. The protected mode IE7 caches most web contents in sub-folders of \low\content.ie5 path. Drill down to each alpha-numeric folders to locate and copy the FLV Flash video, pictures file (jpeg, png, gif, etc), etc.

Locate the Protected Mode IE7 Cache Folder in Windows Vista.
The location of protected mode IE7 cache folder that storing YouTube video (FLV flash video) in Windows Vista


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  2. Ankit Bansal 06-08-08@21:36

    Thanks for the help.
    Excellent way to say things.
    Thanks a ton

  3. just me 22-11-08@04:19

    this was a great help. i tried to do the same for m4v quicktime and was able to locate the file, but unable to find a way to play it. any advice? it is a .qtch file.

  4. Walker 22-11-08@18:22

    Hi there, is this something helpful for you (with reference from http://filext.com/file-extension/QTCH):

    This is a cached file but not compressed. If you know the original file format, add the appropriate file extension to the file and it should play in whatever player you use for that format (or in Quicktime).

    If you don’t know the format, see if TrID can identify it for you. iTunes uses this format as well but Apple changed the way these files are handled and they are scrambled in some fashion so you can’t just put a new header on the file and get the original media as you could under Quicktime.

    Also, TrID will not identify the media type; only that this is a Cache file. You could use a packet sniffer to search for the file type of the data stream as it is downloaded but you will still have to manually construct a new header for the file….

  5. Samrawit 27-12-08@14:56

    thank you, thank you, thank you………..
    you just made my day bright. I opened 10 videos on youtube not noticing my “save flash” is not functioning any more. It took long time, with my connection speed being sooooo slow, to cache these 10 files. i was starting to feel bad to install this save flash thing and recache.

    you made my day.
    thanks!

  6. Samrawit 27-12-08@15:03

    and hey. i followed your steps to the directory, unhide the files and folders and found my videos, (i see their file name usually starts with “get….” so i hunted them all), i copied them as they are (their data type being file with “.file” extension) and i simply changed the extension of the file i pasted in another directory. then this videos work.

    thanks…

  7. Harry K 16-02-09@18:08

    This method works. Searched all night on the net, with other results to this problem, but those answers did not work or not as easy to understand and execute as these instructions.
    I like this method of locating the hidden files in cache (flv,mp3,etc) while leaving the protected mode enabled.

    Thanks
    HK, Vancouver BC

  8. ck 02-03-09@11:21

    Thanks man!
    It was really really helpfull.
    c ya

    ck

  9. Kyriakos Politis 07-09-09@10:01

    Foolproof, straight-forward and effective,
    thanks man.

  10. Will 20-03-10@18:17

    Thank you for this post!!!! God bless you!! I was about to go crazy cause I couldnt figure out why the temp folder wasnt ther. Turns out i was i n protected mode like you described! Thank you, thank you!

  11. Joe 18-11-10@09:14

    Thanks worked great!

  12. Jojo 12-09-11@09:12

    This does NOT work – not any longer. Apparently they now do some more ‘dynamic’ caching in both IE and Firefox and so the tmp and flv files are not cached any more, not in the area you mentioned – Every folder under content.ie5 is hidden+system, so all those cryptic names, a BUNCH of folders, you would have to do ‘attrib -h -s 8502XCI4′ etc. for each and every folder name like 8502XCI4, BEFORE you could even do a decent search.
    Yes, file & folder options are set for “show all hidden and system files,” BUT even in administrator mode, in the Windows explorer GUI, it prompts “Are you sure you want to open this folder.”

    So, basically, there’s no longer any easy way to do this.

  13. Jojo 12-09-11@09:22

    Let me clarify – you / we can find PLENTY of cached FLV & TMP files, if we want to view COMMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENTS! They don’t block those and ‘disappear’ those as soon as the show has been watched – in fact, they WANT you to view those over and over and over and over again.

    So, commericals are free and they remain in cache, but not the ‘movies’ – now the browser makess and the studios/TV stations have worked together to make it almost IMPOSSIBLE to use ‘Video Download Helper’ in Firefox, or any other such ‘workaround.’
    As an example, please tell me WHAT VERSION of O/S & IE (or Firefox) that you are using that will let you go to SyFy.com and watch the new series called “Alphas” and then be able to download it. You CAN’T! Unless maybe IE6 will let you do that, but now they are forcing you to upgrade FLASH and maybe even IE, before allowing you to view their sites, because Adobe Flash has agreed to NOT allow browsers to cache and download movies!

    For me, it’s not like I would ‘sell’ or even show the episode to anyone, I just want to download and watch the episode that I missed, since I sometimes work odd hours. I do NOT WANT TO “STREAM” – streaming sucks and is prone to interruptions, especially if you have 2 kids who are using PS3 online and XBOX360 online and sucking down all the bandwidth in the house! So, if I can dl the show and watch it ‘locally,’ then it really helps a LOT – and I don’t MIND if the ADVERTISEMENTS are there – I actually find them to be pleasant.
    Anyway, thanks for a method that USED TO WORK. :)
    Ideas? Thoughts? Anyone get this to work yet with those places that BLOCk ‘Video Download Helper?’

    There has GOT to be a way – it has GOT to be cached, if nothing else, in ‘memory,’ but how to capture that??? We should be able to capture ANYTHING that comes through our PCs!

    Makes me want to capture every single bit the old-fashioned way – WITH A ‘SNIFFER’ !
    A network sniffer captures ALL the traffic going across your NIC, so you should later be able to reassemble the relevant packets / bits that make up the movie, and re-construct those into the TV episode or movie – does that sound viable? A lot of work, but we could get some sort of filtering set up that only re-assembles the packets if they are ‘flash’ / multimedia packets.

    ???

  14. Walker 13-09-11@01:05

    I understand your frustration of watching online while kids occupying your broadband.

    Can this WebVideoCap (Capture Flash video and RTSP/MMS streams) able to help you?

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