NWC Computers - Automatically Clear Internet Explorer Cache

Geek Speak

Cache - An area on the hard drive where a web browser stores copies of pages that have been viewed, so that subsequent re-loads are quicker, as unchanged pages can be loaded from the cache, rather than being re-loaded from the Internet.

Automatically Clearing the Internet Explorer Cache

All regular users of Internet Explorer (and other browsers for that matter) will be aware that there is a cache of files accessed during online sessions. This used to be very useful in the days of dial-up internet access as it made using the Web quicker because the browser only downloaded files that had changed and used files in the cache where it could.

In these days of high speed internet access the importance of the cache for speed purposes has diminished somewhat, and in the age of identitiy theft and online (in)security many people like to keep the cache as empty as possible to minimise such risks. Windows is able to delete the contents of the cache using its disk cleanup tool, and Internet Explorer can clear the cache using the dialog boxes in the 'Tools' menu, what many people don't realise is that it's possible to set I.E. to clear the cache everytime it closes down:

If you want to set I.E. to clear out all the temporary files upon exit then complete the following procedure:

Click the Start button and select the Control Panel option.
Select the Internet Options icon.
Click the Advanced tab.
Scroll down the list of options, until you see a group marked Security.
Under the Security group find an option marked Empty temporary internet files folder when browser closes and put a tick in the box.
Click Apply and Exit to accept the new setting.

Now when you exit Internet Explorer the temporary internet files folder will automatically cleared.