Internet Explorer's Temporary Internet Files Folder
I've found that over the last few months that I have had
this web site up available for the world to see, the most
requested pages are for how to make your internet connection
faster and how to save space on your hard drive. You can make
your connection faster by reading the MaxMTU
article. You can find out how to clean up your hard drive
by reading the What to Throw Away
article. These two articles can be very helpful in making
your internet and computing life easier.
I'm always looking for ways to improve and add on to these
articles, so when I found a problem with my Internet Explorer
Temporary Internet Files directory (hereafter referred to
as TIF), I couldn't wait to share it with all of my readers
and visitors. Here goes...
Since IE3, Microsoft has created a sub-directory in your
windows directory called Temporary Internet Files. This is
where a copy of your cookies go, where the images that you
view go and where the web pages you visit go. It is not your
average directory. A typical directory will tell you the file
name, when it was created, and when it was modified. The TIF
directory has special properties which let you see when the
page was last visited, and so on. Since it is not a regular
directory, it cannot be read like a regular directory. A regular
directory gives all of the information that you would find
when you use the DIR command in a DOS session. In order to
keep track of the TIF directory in such a special way, Internet
Explorer will create sub-directories with random letter/number
combinations to hold this information. An index file keeps
track of these sub-directories and then when you open the
directory in Windows, you'll think it was just one directory.
The Recycle Bin work in a similar way.
If you were to look at a basic directory listing in DOS,
it would look like this:
C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files>dir
Volume in drive C is PRIMARY
Volume Serial Number is 402D-1102
Directory of C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files
. <DIR> 01-04-99 8:53a
.. <DIR> 01-04-99 8:53a
INDEX DAT 114,688 01-05-99 11:10p index.dat
2 file(s) 114,688 bytes
2 dir(s) 446,312,448 bytes free
If you were to look at a directory listing with the attributes
showing, it would look like this:
C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files>dir/a
Volume in drive C is PRIMARY
Volume Serial Number is 402D-1102
Directory of C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files
. <DIR> 01-04-99 8:53a
.. <DIR> 01-04-99 8:53a
INDEX DAT 114,688 01-05-99 11:10p index.dat
DESKTOP INI 67 01-04-99 8:53a desktop.ini
01234567 <DIR> 01-04-99 8:53a 01234567
89AB0DQF <DIR> 01-04-99 8:53a 89AB0DQF
YH01KLMN <DIR> 01-04-99 8:53a YH01KLMN
RAE3M8RG <DIR> 01-04-99 8:53a RAE3M8RG
2 file(s) 114,755 bytes
6 dir(s) 446,312,448 bytes free
The 89AB0DQF directory and others is what I was talking about.
When you open up the TIF directory in Windows, the information
in all of these directories is read by the index file and
listed as one directory.
All of this is just for a bit of background, and isn't really
that important by itself.
The problem arises when you try to clear the TIF directory
using either the Internet Properties Applet of the Control
Panel, or by erasing the files manually from within a Windows
folder view. It appears that you have erased all of the files,
but you haven't. There are still files there. If you haven't
checked this for a while, it is possible that you have several
MB of garbage in these directories that you thought had been
erased. To see what I mean, try the following:
- Visit a few web sites to make sure that the TIF directory
has some stuff in it
- Close the browser and disconnect from your ISP
- Go to the Internet Properties Applet of the Control Panel,
and clear the History and TIF directory
- Go to the start menu and shut down your computer to MS-Dos
Mode. You should be in the c:\windows directory so at the
command prompt. type in "dir tempor~1/a" (without
the quotes). You will see a listing of a bunch of the directories
that should have been erased, but weren't. Each of those
directories has information in it that you wanted erased.
On some computers that I have checked this on, there has
been only a few 100k of information. On a few, there have
been several MB of junk.
This can be solved by doing the following:
- If you have changed directories to browse the
folders that were left behind, you need to change back to
the Windows directory. The easiest way to do this is to
type in "cd\windows" (without the quotes).
- At the c:\windows command prompt, type in "deltree
tempor~1" (without the quotes). You will be asked to
confirm that you want to erase that directory and all of
the files in it, press y, and it is all done. When you restart
the computer, Windows will automatically recreate the TIF
directory, and it will be clean and pure.
As I said above, the Recycle Bin uses a similar way to keep
track of the unique files that are in it. For some reason
though, it doesn't have this same problem. When you empty
the recycle bin, it is emptied. I do not recommend you erasing
the recycle bin contents from a Dos Session If you try the
steps I mentioned above by erasing the recycle bin, Windows
will recreate it, but you might lose your icons for a while.
They seem to come back after a few reboots.
As part of your regular clean-up on your computer, I would
suggest following the steps above and manually erasing the
TIF directory. The commands again are as follows:
From MS-DOS mode (not from a dos window in Windows), make
sure the DOS prompt is at c:\windows (or whatever your windows
directory is), and type in "deltree tempor~1"
(the ~ is since in DOS mode, you can only have an 8 character
long file or directory name)
Also note that in newer versions of IE, the Temporary Internet
Files folder can be in the Local Settings folder of Windows
or your Profile. You will need to navigate to this folder
before you can issue the command above.
There might be some of you that worry that your Cookies
will be erased when you delete the TIF directory. Well don't
worry. They won't be erased. They are stored in a separate
Cookies directory in the windows directory. When Windows starts,
it makes sure there is a copy of them in the TIF directory.
If you erase the cookie from the TIF directory from within
Windows, it automatically erases the original in the Cookies
directory, so the cookie is lost. If you erase the TIF directory
from DOS mode, then you don't erase the original, and when
Windows starts up, a copy of the cookies will be put back
in the TIF directory (starting this whole thing over again).
To share your findings with me, please send mail here
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