RE: index.dat files

The 'milincorporated' site claims that destroying "the entire structure of the index.dat file" can "cause Internet Explorer or Windows to crash." Wikipedia claims that various free programs "can completely remove index.dat files until they are recreated by Windows" but none "delete the hidden index.dat file in the Temporary Files folder". I've zero interest in using any software to regularly delete file contents. I'm looking for a way to permanently eradicate these files, so that Windows is unable to recreate them, without turning Windows 2000 Professional and XP Pro unstable. Any ideas?