Temporary internet files where is

View Full Term. By clicking sign up, you agree to receive emails from Techopedia and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Temporary Internet Files is a folder used by Microsoft Windows for storing browser caches.

The directory is widely used by all installed Web browsers, especially Internet Explorer, for saving the contents of Web pages or websites visited by the user. It helps in speeding up the loading of pages from frequently visited sites and is also used for offline browsing. When a user views a Web page, the browser stores the contents of the page in the Temporary Internet Files folder. Eventually, the size of this folder becomes very large.

Users therefore can recover precious disk space by deleting some contents. This task can be scheduled or done manually using the browser. It is also highly recommended to clean up the folder since malware applications such as viruses and Trojans are known to infect some files in that folder. If you cannot access the Internet Options dialog box or the General tab, contact your administrator for more information. Files that start with the word "Cookie" may remain in your Temporary Internet Files folder after you follow these steps.

These files are pointers to the actual cookie files that are located in your Cookies folder. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:. In some cases, files that are downloaded from websites may remain in your Temporary Internet Files folder but will not be visible in Windows Explorer after you follow these steps.

For more information about the Temporary Internet Files folder, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:.

Windows 8. Exit Internet Explorer. Exit any instances of Windows Explorer. Select OK two times. Need more help? Expand your skills. Get new features first. The temporary internet file settings can be accessed through the Internet Explorer Internet Options screen.

Use these options to change the temporary internet files folder location, set how often IE checks for cached website pages, and adjust the amount of storage reserved for temp files. Use one of these methods to open Internet Options :. Select the General tab, then go to the Browsing history section and select Settings. Select the Temporary Internet Files tab to access more options to deal with temp files in Internet Explorer.

In the Temporary Internet Files tab, select Check for newer versions of stored pages to choose how often Internet Explorer looks in the temporary internet files folder for cached pages. More frequent checks speed up access to websites. Another option you can change is how much storage space is allowed for temporary internet files. You can change the folder in which IE keeps temporary internet files. Change the folder to store cached pages, images, and other files on a different hard drive that has more space, such as an external hard drive.

To do that, select Move folder and then choose which folder to use for temp files. The other buttons on this screen are for viewing the objects and files that IE has stored. These are the folders mentioned above. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile.

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