Clear out Temporary Internet Files

Helpline Q&A Directory

I recently set up Internet Explorer to clear out my Temporary Internet Files folder, but I still have 3,873 files taking up 25.6MB. How do I truly empty this folder?

The official way to empty the Temporary Internet Files folder in Internet Explorer is to select Tools, Internet Options and click the Delete Files button on the General tab. This should remove most of the unwanted files, but there's a big one left. It's called index.dat, and it doesn't go away or shrink as the cache changes - it just gets bigger. What's more, you cannot delete this file from inside Windows.

To get rid of index.dat bloat, select Start, Shut Down. Click Restart in MS-DOS mode, then ok. At the DOS prompt, type del C:\windows\tempor~1\index.dat (if you've got Internet Explorer 4.x), or del C:\windows\tempor~1\content.ie5\index.dat if you're using Internet Explorer 5.0. Press Enter, then reboot. You'll still have an index.dat file, but it will now be much smaller.

On some systems, clicking the Delete Files button doesn't shrink C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files at all. That's because something - probably setting up a network or installing a wayward application - has caused Internet Explorer to change where it stores temporary files. To find out where the real cache is, go to Internet Explorer and select Tools, Internet Options. On the General tab, click Settings. In the Settings dialog box, click View Files to bring up your real cache folder.

You can move the cache back to the original location - a safe plan if you're the only one using your computer. Click Move Folder, then select C:\Windows from the resulting folder tree (Windows puts the cache in a folder called Temporary Internet Files within the one you pick). Click ok twice, then Yes when asked to reboot. After rebooting, you can safely delete the older folders.