As you make your way through the Internet, Internet Explorer writes a large number of temporary files to your computer’s hard drive. It caches files like images and video files so that when you visit that site again, the page will load faster (because it pulls the files directly from your computer and not have to download them again). While this is a great idea, if you spend a fair amount of time on the net everyday, the amount of space used up can grow pretty large! This is particularly true if you have setup your browser to allow offline browsing. For a cleaner - read: better performing - computer you should have Internet Explorer clean out these temporary folders automatically and defrag your hard drive!
- On the tool bar, click Tools and then “Internet Options”
- Under the “Advanced” tab, scroll down until you reach the Security section. Tick the checkbox that reads:
Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed
- Click the “OK” button.
The new setting will take effect the next time you start Internet Explorer!
