Cleaning Windows XP: Taming Web Cache Files

Web browsers maintain what is called a cache, an area of your hard drive where the browser stashes recently stored Web pages and, more likely,

recently stored images downloaded while you travel through the Internet. If you have a slow Internet connection, the cache is a necessity because it prevents the need for downloading graphics every time you visit a Web page. Visit once and the graphics are downloaded to the cache. Visit the site again and the graphics are loaded from the cache, eliminating the need to download them over the slower Internet connection. (The cache is less useful if you're using a high-speed connection, simply because downloading graphics takes less time.)

The problem is that if you visit 30 Web pages, each with an average of 10 graphics, you end up with 300 graphic images in your cache. Multiply that times a month of browsing every day, and all of a sudden you have 9,000 graphics in your cache.

Cleaning the cache

If you use Internet Explorer, cleaning out the cache is relatively easy. You can do it in a couple of different ways. If you have the browser open, follow these steps:

1. Choose Tools --> Internet Options.

IE displays the Internet Options dialog box.

2. On the General tab, click the Delete Files button.

A warning dialog box offers to delete all your offline content, as well. For most folks, this doesn't matter — they don't browse offline. If you're in the minority that does, select the check box.