Temporary Internet Files

Temporary Internet Files contain web pages that you have recently accessed. Doing this speeds up access to pages that you have previously viewed as they can be taken from you hard disk instead of the Internet.

It does also mean that the page you are viewing may not be up to date, and may have already been replaced. If you suspect that that is the case, or simply want to ensure that you are viewing the very latest page, then click the refresh button.
 

Manage Temporary Internet Files

The files are stored in the Temporary Internet Files folder at a location that you can specify and change. You can also change the amount of space on you hard disk that can be used for storing temporary files. To change/ view the files:

1. In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
2. On the General tab, click Settings.

The amount of disk space can be controlled either by using the slider or for more control by typing in the figure of using the up down arrows of the size box. By default Internet explorer uses 10% of the disk space which can be very large.

 I set mine to 100MB which is usually more than adequate. If however you frequently need to access content while offline and have enable folder synchronization then it will probably be necessary to increase this to 300-500MB.

The check for update option is usually left on automatic. Be careful of the never setting as this means that explorer will never check for an updated page unless you do a manual refresh and the page you look at could be very old.

The Move folder option allows you to move the location on the temporary files. This is useful if you are running low on disk space and have room on another drive.

The view files option will show you a list of files/images/scripts/cookies that the browser has cached you can even delete an individual file/files from the cache by highlighting it and hitting the delete key.

The view objects option displays a list of the the active X and Java classes that are stored on your computer. These are no deleted when you use the delete files option.

Delete Temporary Internet Files

There is a security and a privacy risk in storing files in the browser cache. Anyone with access to your computer can view these files. However having them available does speed up your access and does mean that you can view web pages even while off-line provided that you have previously visited them.

In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options. You will see the following:

You can either delete all the files or just the cookies. If you choose the delete files option you will also be presented with a box to delete any offline files that you are using for folder synchronization. Using this option does not delete the cookies you need to delete these using the delete cookies option.

Automatically deleting the Temporary Internet Files

 You can adjust Internet Explorer so that it automatically deletes Temporary Internet Files (clears the cache) whenever you close the browser. To do this

1. Go to the Tools menu, and click Internet Options.
2.  Click the Advanced tab. In the "Settings" box, scroll down to the section labelled "Security,"
3. Click the check the box next to the "Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed" option.
4. Click OK to finish.
5. Note: This option does not delete cookies, but it will clear your cache of other files when you close your browser.

 Browser History

Internet explorer stores a list of URLs (universal resource locators) of the websites that you have visited in the browser history. This is not the web pages pages themselves but just the addresses of those pages.

The address bar has a scroll button which lets you view the last 25 or so web addresses that you have visited. I f you have auto-complete turned on then when you start typing in the address bar Internet explorer will try to complete the web address using the browser history.

Internet Explorer also has a neat way of showing the browser history. This I use if I can't remember the address of a site that I recently visited. To view the history the in Internet explorer tool bar click view>explorer toolbar>history or type CRTL+H.

A new pane open on the left like below:

Clear Browser History

Again for privacy /security reasons you may want to delete/clear the browser history. To do that:

1. In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
2. Click the clear history button

Internet Privacy and Related Tools

If you don't want to delete these files manually there are a number of tools available that will clear not the temporary Internet files but also Internet cookies, auto complete, browser history and also PC related data like windows run menu items etc.

These tools are usually sold as Internet Privacy tools and are very useful if you are sharing a PC with other members of your family and want to keep your Internet activities and data private.

Related Articles and Resources:

• Secure Internet Connections
• Where do Deleted Files Go When They are Deleted?
• Privacy Protection Software
• Using a Public Computer on The Internet