Temporary Internet Files

[BradleyGas]

Is there any problem in deleting temporary internet files? And if not, might it improve speed as presumably, these files take up space.

[tigersam258]

generally it is a good idea to delete them. all they do is post the webpage back to your screen quicker as it takes it from memory rather than going to get a fresh copy from the webpage hoster instead. clearing this should speed up your browsing as the 'clutter' will have gone but initially any frequently viewed pages may take a few seconds longer to load.

[VHG]

The files do take up space, but if you have a large hard disk (many gigabytes) then their size will not be very much.

Most internet files (apart from video) like text, images and photos are scaled down for the web to enable them to download quicker.

Having SOME Temporary interent files may speed up the internet at first (because it may save downloading images or text for pages you have already visited).

BUT once you get a LOT of temporary internet files it can actually take Windows LONGER to look through all the files than to download it again in the first place.

Also note that cookies are temporary interent files, and if you have many "tracking" cookies on your PC that are monitoring your PC usage (as most of us do) then clearing out your temporary interent files will remove the cookies (although to be honest they come right back again as soon as you visit a web site).

[BradleyGas]

Thanks for the responses. I think I'll get rid of them and see what happens.

[pastafreak]

I just did a diskclean or the first time...my laptop is 2yrs old. By just deleting temp files I regained over 40GB..I was amazed.....this was all unnecessary 'stuff' that had accumulated.
I used this:

http://www.ccleaner.com/

[VHG]

pastafreak, what that program deleted was ALL your temporary files, which can be a lot.

Original question was about Temporary Internet Files which are a slightly different thing.

Every time you install a new progam it may put files a folder called "Temp", and after the install it just leaves them there.

Even if you uninstall the program it probably leaves files in the Temp folder.

After two years then the Temp folder can be quite big.

I have just done a clean install of Windows, and my temp folder is already 40Mb.

[BradleyGas]

Thanks for latest responses.

[ACtheTROLL]

the thing with temp internet files is next time you have a session ... you'll just put them all back ...

you can set the size of the pool - and as VHG says ... with a big 'un ... it's no real loss (mine is 555Mb)

when it's full ie starts deleting the ones that have the oldest accessed date ... so that will slow down your pc slightly ... but setting out to delete them manually will also take time.

occasionally for some reason ie won't delete them ... and ie almost stops...

I tend to increase the size ... and tick the refresh every time option ... and leave things alone.

the system temp folder on the other hand is worth watching ... that one will just fill and fill... and fill

also the windows folder ...
you candelete the
$NtUninstallKB******$ folders (they are blue)
but NEVER EVER delete $hf_mig$