Temporary Internet Files

  • Thread starter Thread starter David Burkinshaw
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David Burkinshaw

Does anyone know why my Temporary Internet Files folder contains 365
objects, which are all cookies and are all 1 KB in size each, yet when I
right click on the folder and select "Properties" it reports that the folder
is using 645 MB?
I have my folder settings as "Show Hidden Files and Folders" and I'm not
hiding any protected or OS files.
I've never seen this. I'm running Windows XP with SP2.

Thanks,

David
 
Hi David

Go to the TIF folder from a command prompt and type the following

dir /a/s

what size does that command give?
 
Wow!!! Where are all of these files hiding?
How come I can't see them with Explorer?
How can I clean it out?

Thanks,

David
 
Hi

Open Internet Explorer and go to Tools>Internet Options. Click on Settings
and then the 'View Files...' button. You'll probably find you have quite a
few objects listed there. You can either empty that folder by clicking
'Delete Files...' on the previous screen or adjust the slider for the amount
of disk space you want to allow for those files. I have allowed 50 MBs
which is plenty enough. The default is something like 10% (not too sure on
that figure) of the total disk space, which far too much space to allow.
 
I have the "amount of disk space to use:" set at 595 MB. If I go to View
Files I only see the cookies and a handful of other files (because I opened
IE). When I perform a "Delete Files" it cleans out the folder (less the
cookies) but in Explorer it still shows that I'm using over 649MB (which is
over the 595 that I allocated a long time ago.)

I'm just wondering how come Explorer isn't showing me these files.

Thanks,

David
 
David said:
I have the "amount of disk space to use:" set at 595 MB. If I go to View
Files I only see the cookies and a handful of other files (because I opened
IE). When I perform a "Delete Files" it cleans out the folder (less the
cookies) but in Explorer it still shows that I'm using over 649MB (which is
over the 595 that I allocated a long time ago.)

I'm just wondering how come Explorer isn't showing me these files.

Thanks,

David
Click to expand...
I am just curious why would you allocate that much space for the temp
files...?
 
Hi

Try lowering the 595 MB - then see what 'View Files...' sees. 595 MBs for
the TIF folder is rather a large amount of disk space.
 
I don't know why it's set that high. I have a 40GB hard drive so it's never
been an issue. I might have cranked it up a while ago.
 
You aren't cleaning out the contents of the Content.IE5 folder.

Content.IE5 is a Hidden System folder.

C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name Here\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.IE5

You do not have to *see* the Content.IE5 folder to delete its contents.

To delete *all* Temporary Internet Files...

1) Start | Run | Type: inetcpl.cpl | OK
Or right click the Internet Explorer icon on your Desktop.
Or: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Internet Options.
Best to do this with all instances of Internet Explorer closed. Especially
if there are a large number of files.
2) On the General Tab, in the middle of the screen, click on Delete Files
3) Check the box Delete all offline content {This cleans >> C:\Documents
and Settings\YourNameHere\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files AND
C:\Documents and Settings\YourNameHere\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.IE5 and \Content.MSO
4) Click on OK and wait for the hourglass icon to stop after it deletes the
temporary internet files
5) You can now click on Delete Cookies and click OK to delete cookies that
websites have placed on your hard drive.
-----

If you want, try this: Open IE | Tools | Internet Options | Advanced tab |
scroll down to the bottom | check: Empty Temporary Internet Files folder
when browser is closed | click Apply | OK. Entirely up to you, but if you
want to be rid of this, it is done automatically. Deletes the content of
C:\Documents and Settings\YourNameHere\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files but not the Content.IE5 or Content.MSO folders.

Also: Start IE | Tools | Internet Options | General tab | Days to keep
pages in history: 0 | Apply | OK.
 
Thanks,
I didn't realize that XP still hid files even though the settings say not
to.
I took Will's advice and brought my setting down to 2 MB first. Selected
"Delete Files" and then (after about 5 minutes of waiting) increased the
setting to 40 MB.
I think I originally set it really high because the folder would easily
reach 100 MB. (too much eBay)

Thanks for the advice.

David
 
David,

Oh, yes, XP still hides files and folders in Windows Explorer. To view some
of these you have to go about it in a different manner.

To view:
C:\Documents and Settings\YourNameHere\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files

Start | Run | Type: inetcpl.cpl | OK
Or right click the Internet Explorer icon on your Desktop.
Or: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Internet Options.
General tab | Settings button | View Files button

To view:
C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name Here\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.IE5 AND \Content.MSO

Start | Run | Type: cleanmgr | OK | Highlight Temporary Internet Files |
View Files button

Note: Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) will *not* clean:
C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name Here\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.IE5

Or...

Start | Run | Type: %TEMP% | OK |

You will probably have to click the Folders button on the Tool Bar.
Click: [+] Temporary Internet Files
Click: [+] Content.IE5
Click: Random named folders
View
You can also view Content.MSO
===

I have my Temporary Internet Files folder set to 1MB.

Temporary Internet Files folder Amount of disk space to use:
[[Specifies how much disk space to use for the Temporary Internet Files
folder.
When you view a new page on the Web, Internet Explorer temporarily stores it
(and some of its contents, such as graphics files) on your hard disk. This
increases the speed at which previously viewed pages are displayed.
The more disk space you allot to the folder, the more pages Internet
Explorer can store on your hard disk. If you are low on disk space, you
might want to set this option to a lower percentage.]]

[[Resizing your Cache
By default Internet Explorer allocates 10% of your drive. This was fine
years ago but today with the size of these new drives, 10% is just too large
and increases the chances for corruption.

Click the Settings button, adjust the TIF size to 50 mb, click OK ]]

From >>>
Safely Delete the Temporary Internet Files
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/delcache.htm


--
Hope this helps. Let us know.
Wes

In
David Burkinshaw said:
Thanks,
I didn't realize that XP still hid files even though the settings say
not to.
I took Will's advice and brought my setting down to 2 MB first.
Selected "Delete Files" and then (after about 5 minutes of waiting)
increased the setting to 40 MB.
I think I originally set it really high because the folder would
easily reach 100 MB. (too much eBay)

Thanks for the advice.

David


scroll down to the bottom | check: Empty Temporary Internet Files
folder when browser is closed | click Apply | OK. Entirely up to
you, but if you want to be rid of this, it is done automatically.
Deletes the content of C:\Documents and Settings\YourNameHere\Local
Settings\Temporary Internet Files but not the Content.IE5 or
Content.MSO folders.

Also: Start IE | Tools | Internet Options | General tab | Days to
keep pages in history: 0 | Apply | OK.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.
Wes

In
Click to expand...
[/QUOTE]
 
There are two limits, number of items and size of all items. You can't change the number of items. The automatic cleanup runs ONLY when the size is exceeded. Therefore if you have a too large size the cache will fill up it's entries but because the size hasn't been exceeded it just stops caching.

Cookies aren't in TIF. Explorer is not a file manager.
 
David said:
Wow!!! Where are all of these files hiding?
How come I can't see them with Explorer?
How can I clean it out?
Click to expand...

TIF is a curious beast, and Explorer displays it differently. Cookies
are *normally* shown as being in it - but are in fact held in a quite
separate Cookies folder in the Documents and settings\username\
 
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