How to Configure and Manage Temporary Internet Files

Every time you visit a web page, Internet Explorer (IE) copies and saves the content on these web pages as files on your computer. These files are placed in the Temporary Internet Files folder. This allows your computer to faster display web sites that you visit frequently.

Internet Explorer will compare content on the website with the information stored in the Temporary Internet Files. If the website has since been updated, those new files will be downloaded. This allows users to surf the World Wide Web much faster because your computer will not have to constantly download frequently accessed files.

Most of the time, Temporary Internet files do not cause much of a problem. However, there are some circumstances that require you to clean out these files. One reason is your privacy protection. If many people have access to your computer or if you give away your computer, other people may be able to access information about websites your have visited because these sites have been stored in the Temporary Internet files folder.

You may also want to delete items stored in the Temporary Internet files folder in order to save hard drive space. By default, Temporary Internet Files take up 10% of your hard drive's disk space. This percentage wasn't a problem in the past, as hard drives were much smaller. Now, hard drives with hundreds of gigabytes of hard space will allocate much more space to the Temporary Internet Files. You only need about 50 megabytes of hard drive space allocated to your Temporary Internet files.

How to Configure Your Temporary Internet files
Step #1
Click on Start. On the Start menu, click Control Panel. Double-click Internet Options on the Control Panel menu.

Step #2
You will now be presented with the Internet Options window. Click the Settings button to access settings for the Temporary Internet files.

Step #3
The first sections asks you how often you want Internet Explorer to check for newer versions of stored pages.
*You can select Every visit to the page if you want pages to be checked for updates every time you access the page.
*You can select Every time you start Internet Explorer if you want Internet Explorer to check for updates every time you open your web browser.
*You can select Automatically if you want Internet Explorer to manage how often it updates web pages.
*You can also select Never if you never want Internet Explorer to update pages. In this case, you will have to click Refresh anytime you want to update a web page.

Step #4
There is also an option asking you how much space you want to allocate to your Temporary Internet files folder. Set this to about 50 megabytes (you don't have to, but you really don't need more than 50 MB).

How to Delete Temporary Internet files
Step #1
Click Start and then Control Panel, then Internet Options.

Step #2
On the Internet Options window, click Delete Files in the Temporary Internet files section. Check the box labeled Delete all offline content and click OK.

Step #3
Click OK again to close out of the Internet Options window.