Temporary internet files refer to a directory on Microsoft computer systems that stores cache files from Internet Explorer and other web browsers. In this browsing data like images, videos, flash content are stored. This allows the web pages to reload faster as the computer just needs to load the changed content as opposed to the entire web page. The files downloaded with each web page include HTML files, Java scripts and CSS files.
Unlike cookies, temporary internet files are located separately in the hard drive. Not only can the space reserved for them be cleared but the location of these files can be changed as well. The files can additionally be sorted by file name, their Internet Address, file type and size along with various dates of their inclusion. These temporary files need to be manually cleared to improve the computer’s performance and clear the unwanted disk space. To locate these files and manually clear them, check out the following steps.
Step 1: Open internet explorer/ Windows control panel. Go to the Tools menu and select the Internet options from the menu. If you select Windows control panel, then you need to select Internet Options list item.
Step 2: Select the General tab and under the browsing history section, select the “Settings” button.
Step 3: This reveals the Temporary Internet Settings window and select “View Files”. This displays all the temporary internet files in a new window which you can now view along with the URL from where they were stored. You can now start deleting the files or use automatic tools for clearing the data from the computer and free precious hard disk space.
In addition to this tool for manual deleting of files, you can also automatically clear data in these files using automatic tools such as CCleaner.