How and Why to Clear Your Cache
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.
On This Page
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:
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1.
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On the Internet Explorer Tools menu, click Internet Options.
The Internet Options box should open to the General tab.
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2.
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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.
The Delete Files button
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3.
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Click OK, and then click OK again.
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 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:
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1.
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On the Tools menu, click Internet Options. The Internet
Options box should open to the General tab.
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2.
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On the General tab, in the Temporary Internet Files
section, click the Settings button. This will open the Settings
box.
The Settings button
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3.
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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.
Adjusting the amount of disk space used by
the Temporary Internet Files folder
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4.
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Click OK, and then click OK again.
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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:
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1.
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On the Tools menu, click Internet Options. The Internet
Options box should open to the General tab.
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2.
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On the General tab, in the Temporary Internet Files
section, click the Settings button. This will open the Settings
box.
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3.
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In the Settings box, there are four ways to check for newer
versions of pages that are stored in the Temporary Internet Files
folder:
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Every visit to the page: You're assured of the most
current content, but it's slower to browse previously viewed
pages.
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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.
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Automatically: Internet Explorer will check
automatically for any new content.
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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.
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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.
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