accessing IE history with python...

[Adam]

Hi all,

I am currently starting a project creating a yahoo style links page based on
browsing preferences of a group of users. Currently the group are all using
Netscape and I am able to access their history files using the Berkley db
interface within Python this is fine. Now the whole group is going to be
force to move to IE so I need to change some code to access the new history
information.

First of all i have only been able to see the files in windows using cygwin
(UNIX emulation shell) they are .dat files if i have got the right ones.
Also there are folders with long names see some examples below. I dont seem
to be able to see this in the normal ms dos shell. See examples below.

Questions:

(Please bear in mind that i have full consent form the users involved or
will seek consent for any further monitoring as suggested in Q4)

1) Will i be able to see these files from Python?
2) Does anyone know what these files mean(format, directories)? Do they
contain the history info?
3) How can i extract information from these files? I have tried the Berkley
db but it doesnt work. Currently i can extract quite a bit of info from the
nestcape files basically what you can see in the history window plus a bit
more. As you dont see quite everything there. I would be looking to get the
same or more info from the IE files.
4) alternatives. I have considered logging all mouse and keystroke activity
can i do this using python if the script is not in focus but in the
background. I guess this would be quite a low level protocol maybe not
accessible through python?

Any help is appreciated...

Thanks

>From Adam

CYGWIN: can see the files

$ cd History/

Mr Adam G Craggs at AG /cygdrive/c/windows/History
$ ls
History.IE5  desktop.ini

Mr Adam G Craggs at AG /cygdrive/c/windows/History
$ cd History.IE5/

Mr Adam G Craggs at AG /cygdrive/c/windows/History/History.IE5
$ ls
MSHist012000121720001218  MSHist012002052520020526  index.dat
MSHist012002030420020305  desktop.ini

Mr Adam G Craggs at AG /cygdrive/c/windows/History/History.IE5
$ cd MSHist012000121720001218/

Mr Adam G Craggs at AG
/cygdrive/c/windows/History/History.IE5/MSHist01200012172000
1218
$ ls
index.dat

Mr Adam G Craggs at AG
/cygdrive/c/windows/History/History.IE5/MSHist01200012172000
1218
$

MS DOS cant see anything

C:\WINDOWS>cd history

C:\WINDOWS\History>dir

 Volume in drive C is WINDOWS98
 Volume Serial Number is 8B11-DA87
 Directory of C:\WINDOWS\History

.              <DIR>        24/11/00  16:00 .
..             <DIR>        24/11/00  16:00 ..
         0 file(s)              0 bytes
         2 dir(s)        6,085.75 MB free