# IE Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 13, 2003, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/218753 "2003-12-13T06:54:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![voxnihili](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@voxnihili](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voxnihili)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/218753/1 "2003-12-13T06:54:21Z")
ok, 2 odd things have happened to msie recently, for no apparent reason 1. whenever i right click and ‘save picture as’ it will only allow me to save the image as a bitmap regardless of the original image’s format, and 2. ie will no longer automatically resubmit information, which makes it an incredible pain in the ass to navigate around sites where you search a lot how can i change things back to the way i used to have them? i havent changed any settings besides downloading the most recent windows update (the security one regarding frontpage) and removing that damned MySearch bar that kazaa sticks you with. ---
**Author:** ![Caught\_Work](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/919ad9/32.png) [@Caught\_Work](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caught_Work)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/218753/2 "2003-12-13T08:06:22Z")
1. I think your cache is full. Trying deleting your temporary internet files and see what happens. 2. Dunno. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/218753/3 "2003-12-13T08:18:56Z")
1. **Caught@Work** is right. Definitely the cache. 2. Possibly also the cache. If it by chance only happens with secure sites, go to internet options -\> advanced -\> uncheck “do not save encrypted pages to disk” ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/218753/4 "2003-12-13T08:56:21Z")
Explanation for the [bitmap problem](http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=810978). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/218753/5 "2003-12-13T11:24:31Z")
Cache will be it. It’s a fixed part of your memory that’s assigned for keeping IE information, and if it’s full, it won’t allow other useful bits of info to be recorded anymore. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/218753/6 "2003-12-13T14:02:06Z")
Folks, Cache CANNOT get full. That’s totally bogus. If the stuff stored in the cache grows until it reaches the configured allocation limit, then the oldest stuff is automatically deleted to make room for the new stuff. As a privacy matter I set my IE cache size to only 2MB. That ensures any cookies or trackers I inadvertantly pick up will be deleted within a couple of days as I keep moving around the web. Works great. If what you said about caches filling up was true, IE would jam up within a few hours of starting it. True, a lot of Microsoft’s fix-it advice will start out by suggesting you empty the cache. Why? To return the system to a state like when it was installed. Because IE looks in the cache first, if somehow a file there has been damaged and is causing a problem, your problem will remain until that file is deleted. “Clear the cache” is a shot-gun technique that forces a fresh download of any/every part of every page you then visit.