Temporary Internet files are something of an enigma in the way that they can make your computer faster or slower.

One of the first things we are told when your Internet browser is running slow is “ Delete Your temporary Internet Files “ if this is the case why does the browser insist on creating them in the first place? If all they do is seem to slow down our computers?

In all seriousness they do actually speed up your Internet browsing? And then overtime they slow it down again

What are Internet temp files?

When you visit a website your Internet browser downloads and stores common parts of the web page you’re looking at to a temporary file directory on your computers hard disk.

When you visit the same web page next time, it looks for updates or changes to the page.

How do they speed up browsing?
For parts of the webpage that have not changed it uses the parts it downloaded earlier to make the page load faster, and as much of the page is actually loaded from your hard drive and not from the website.

Pretty nifty huh!!

How do temp files slow down browsing?
The slowdown begins to happen when you have lots of temporary Internet files stored on your computer which are redundant. This happens as web pages you visit have been changed or updated, and then your temp Internet files store grows and grows to such an extent that you could literally have thousands of files in the directory.

The size of the temp files is not really a problem as Internet temp files are tiny, but the sheer volume of the files means a real chore for your browser as it has to sift through thousands of files to find the temp files it needs, hence the slow down.

How to speed up your browser again?
The easiest way to speed up your browser is to simply delete all the temporary Internet files, and then the whole process will start again; it’s a good idea to have a clean out every month or so to keep your browser running smoothly.

How To delete temp files from..

Internet Explorer – Tools Menu – Internet Options and Delete Files

Firefox – Tools Menu – Clear recent history – select everything in the Time range to clear – Click the down arrow for details of what your about to clear – Make sure Cache is selected and hit the Clear Now button

How to find your temporary internet files

If you want to actually look at your Internet temp files

Internet Explorer – C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files

Firefox – XP = C:\Documents and Settings\**your profile name**\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\***.default\Cache

Firefox – Vista = C:\Users\\**your profile name**\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\***.default\Cache

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