Number 227 - April 2002

Manage Your Browser Cache
found at http://www.thelaughin.com/tips03.htm/FONT>
If you are baffled by Internet Explorer's cache, because you find pages you viewed weeks ago, while those you looked at a few hours ago aren't there, here's the reason and what to do. Internet Explorer saves a copy of every page and file you download in a complex structure of hidden subfolders within the Temporary Internet Files folder.     The cache serves two performance boosting purposes. When you return to a page you previously visited, IE can load the cached copy, saving you the tedium of a lengthy download. When you choose Work Offline from IE's File menu, you can browse cached pages by loading them directly from your hard disk...always faster than downloading them from the Net. There's a limit on the size of the cache, of course, the default settings depend on your system, but generally you can expect IE to reserve about three percent of the total hard-disk space available.     So what happens when the cache runs out of room? In a perfect world, IE would discard the oldest file to make room for the new content. In practice, though, that's not the way it works. Sorting through 50MB to	100MB of cached entries would slow the system down unacceptably. Instead, IE uses an algorithm that tries to ensure that recently viewed pages stay in the cache. As you've seen, this doesn't always succeed.     One way to guarantee that cached pages will stick around long enough for you to view them offline is to set up an IE subscription. This setting, available when you add a page to the Favorites list, lets you specify a custom schedule for downloading pages and even lets you download all pages linked to the page you specify. If you know in advance that you'll be browsing a large number of sites that you may want to revisit, it's a good idea to clean out the cache first, thus eliminating the need for IE to discard any pages when saving the new ones.     Open an IE window and choose View/Internet Options1. Click on the button labeled Delete Files. You can check a box to delete subscription content as well. 1 TOGGLE Editor's Note:     In our version of Internet Explorer, Internet Options is under Tools, not under View.
Number 227 - April 2002