Clearing Cache, Cookies and History in Internet Explorer - A short tutorial

How and Why to Clear Your Cache
Published: March 23, 2004 on Microsoft homepage.

Often referred to as the cache, the Temporary Internet Files folder contains a kind of travel record of the items you have seen, heard, or downloaded from the Web, including images, sounds, Web pages, even cookies. Typically these items are stored in the Temporary Internet Files folder.

Storing these files in your cache can make browsing the Web faster because it usually takes your computer less time to display a Web page when it can call up some of the page's elements or even the entire page from your local Temporary Internet Files folder.


Clearing Your Browser's Cache

All those files stored in your cache take up space, so from time to time, you may want to clear out the files stored in your cache to free up some space on your computer. This is called clearing the cache.

To clear your cache:

1.

On the Internet Explorer Tools menu, click Internet Options. The Internet Options box should open to the General tab.

2.

On the General tab, in the Temporary Internet Files section, click the Delete Files button. This will delete all the files that are currently stored in your cache.



3.Click OK, and then click OK again.

Tip: You can adjust your Internet Explorer settings to automatically clear the cache whenever you close Internet Explorer. Go to the Tools menu, and click Internet Options. Click the Advanced tab. In the "Settings" box, scroll down to the section labeled "Security," and click to check the box next to the "Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed" option. Click OK to finish. This option does not delete cookies, but it will clear your cache of other files when you close your browser.

More Speed or More Room?

If you tend to go online a lot and have ample space on your computer, you might want to increase the size of your Temporary Internet Files folder. Why? Because Internet Explorer will read already-viewed files from the cache first rather than take the time to download the same page from the Web, thus saving you time and money.

To change the size of your cache:

1.

On the Tools menu, click Internet Options. The Internet Options box should open to the General tab.

2.On the General tab, in the Temporary Internet Files section, click the Settings button. This will open the Settings box.

3.In the Settings box, under Amount of disk space to use, you can slide the bar to the right to increase the amount of disk space used by your Temporary Internet Files folder.



4.Click OK, and then click OK again.

Adjusting How Often to Update

While it's true that the more files you can load from your hard disk, the faster your browsing speed, it's also true that those pages on the Web might have changed since being stored on your computer. You might not want to miss fresh content just to save a little time. Fortunately, in addition to the size of the cache, you can also customize how often Internet Explorer checks the Web for updated content.

First you will need to go to the Internet Explorer Settings box:

1.

On the Tools menu, click Internet Options. The Internet Options box should open to the General tab.

2.

On the General tab, in the Temporary Internet Files section, click the Settings button. This will open the Settings box.

3.

In the Settings box, there are four ways to check for newer versions of pages that are stored in the Temporary Internet Files folder:
•

Every visit to the page: You're assured of the most current content, but it's slower to browse previously viewed pages.
•

Every time you start Internet Explorer: On your first visit to a page, Internet Explorer will check for new information, but not on subsequent visits in the same browsing session.
•

Automatically: Internet Explorer will check automatically for any new content.
•

Never: This option is fastest, but you could be viewing old content from the cache. To refresh the page, press the F5 button on your keyboard—this will connect you to the page on the Web and download new information to the Temporary Internet files folder.

Try several combinations of these options and cache size to find the best fit for your needs. You may need to use the settings for a few days to fully gauge how they are working.