# Where the hell have my temporary internet files disappeared to? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 30, 2006, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192 "2006-01-30T11:41:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/21 "2006-01-31T09:42:00Z")
Well thanks, but I’m not sure I want computer help from someone whose idea of cleaning the cache is Tools \> Internet Options \> General \> Delete Files, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/22 "2006-01-31T09:50:26Z")
Okay, I apologise for being snarky in my last post. But just because I made a slip-up about whether Local Settings is hidden does not mean I don’t know my way around my computer. Content.IE5 does, in fact, exist. You may have IE6, but your crap is still stored in Content.IE5. There is no Content.IE6 as far as I know. And unless you have not used IE since you bought your computer it will be full of crap. Take a look. It taakes 10 seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/23 "2006-01-31T09:54:10Z")
> [@FlyingRamenMonster](#): > > Okay, I apologise for being snarky in my last post. But just because I made a slip-up about whether Local Settings is hidden does not mean I don’t know my way around my computer. Content.IE5 does, in fact, exist. You may have IE6, but your crap is still stored in Content.IE5. There is no Content.IE6 as far as I know. And unless you have not used IE since you bought your computer it will be full of crap. Take a look. It taakes 10 seconds. Okay, I apologise too. Look dude: > [@](#): > > Clearing Your Browser’s Cache > > All those files stored in your cache take up space, so from time to time, you may want to clear out the files stored in your cache to free up some space on your computer. This is called clearing the cache. > > To clear your cache: > > 1. On the Internet Explorer Tools menu, click Internet Options. The Internet Options box should open to the General tab. > > 2. On the General tab, in the Temporary Internet Files section, click the Delete Files button. This will delete all the files that are currently stored in your cache. [http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/using/howto/customizing/clearcache.mspx](http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/using/howto/customizing/clearcache.mspx) Your PC might have a content.IE5 folder. Mine does not. You must have upgraded from IE5, while my PC had it all along. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/24 "2006-01-31T09:55:53Z")
> [@Eleusis](#): > > In C:\Documents and Settings\Brad\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files (I don’t have a “content.IE5” folder in there, all the files were just there) there were 19,595 files. I did the the delete files thing I mentioned in post #8, and now the only thing left there are cookies, 1,417 of them. **Eleusis** , if you read my post on the subject earlier in the thread, those 19,595 files _aren’t_ the cache files. They’re merely shortcuts to the files, which are actually hidden in randomly named folders (e.g. U3B6A59S), which are hidden in the Content.IE5 folder, which you cannot see using regular Windows browsing. What you just did _didn’t_ clear the actual cache files. However, **FlyingRamenMonster** I did the IE “delete hidden files” and while the randomly-named folders remain, their content does indeed now seem to be gone. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/25 "2006-01-31T09:56:07Z")
> [@](#): > > Take a look. It taakes 10 seconds. And I told you man, I did. It’s not there, ON MINE. All the jpegs, WMVs, etc, are right in the temp files folder. There are no subfolders. Good luck. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/26 "2006-01-31T09:58:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Eleusis, if you read my post on the subject earlier in the thread, those 19,595 files aren’t the cache files. They’re merely shortcuts to the files, which are actually hidden in randomly named folders (e.g. U3B6A59S), which are hidden in the Content.IE5 folder, which you cannot see using regular Windows browsing. What you just did didn’t clear the actual cache files. Wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/27 "2006-01-31T09:59:41Z")
> [@Eleusis](#): > > Wrong. These were the actual files, they weren’t shortcuts. The file sizes were ranged from several K to several MB. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/28 "2006-01-31T10:09:59Z")
With all due respect, **Eleusis** , this isn’t so. They’re not your regular shortcut, I’ll grant you. If you look at the file you mention, it has a regular filesize. You can even drop it onto the desktop and look at it: it behaves as you would think. But it _isn’t_ the actual file. It is actually a super-mega-Microsoft shortcut that contains stuff like the path to the URL where it came from, the actual file’s filesize, and also the path to the _actual_ file, which is contained in the place I told you it is. You can demonstrate this by following the instructions given, identifying a file in one of the Content.IE5 folders, deleting it, then finding the requisite shortcut in the ‘Temporary Internet Files’ folder and trying to do anything with it. It will give you, as it just did with me, the error message “Cannot copy file: cannot read from the source file or disk”. I’ll post some screenshots if you need further assistance in proving that what you think is happening isn’t actually. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/29 "2006-01-31T10:13:05Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > However, **FlyingRamenMonster** I did the IE “delete hidden files” and while the randomly-named folders remain, their content does indeed now seem to be gone. How do you mean? I used to do the “delete files” thing from within IE every week until I found webpages in my cache from a year ago. Is there some other setting that does things properly? I got to work deleting the folders manually but it was taking a little longer than I’d have liked. Anyway ccleaner seems to have taken care of things. The folders _did_ come back, and they _are_ full of html files but they don’t appear to be actual web pages. I guess that works. **Eleusis** , I assume you’re using Windows XP. When you click on your Start button what name shows up on the side/top bar? This took me like 20 minutes to write. Goddamit I hate Dvorak. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/30 "2006-01-31T10:18:06Z")
To address the Avast question (which may have been answered but I kinda skimmed past the IE back-and-forth) it does claim to be freeware, but mine expired something like 3 months after I downloaded it, and will no longer download new definitions until I purchase the registered version. Some new meaning of freeware that I wasn’t previously aware of, really. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/31 "2006-01-31T10:22:30Z")
> [@FlyingRamenMonster](#): > > **Eleusis** , I assume you’re using Windows XP. When you click on your Start button what name shows up on the side/top bar?[/SIZE] It says “Gentoo Linux 2.6.15.2”. Is that Windows XP? 😉 OK. I admit I’m stubborn. I admit I’m an asshole. I admit I’m wrong. Apologies around. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/32 "2006-01-31T10:27:55Z")
Oh damn it, he’s apologised. [After I’d gone to all that trouble.](http://www.crowaptok.com/eleusis/) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/33 "2006-01-31T10:34:49Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > To address the Avast question (which may have been answered but I kinda skimmed past the IE back-and-forth) it does claim to be freeware, but mine expired something like 3 months after I downloaded it, and will no longer download new definitions until I purchase the registered version. Some new meaning of freeware that I wasn’t previously aware of, really. I thought so. _sigh_ Back to AVG we go… > [@Eleusis](#): > > OK. I admit I’m stubborn. I admit I’m an asshole. I admit I’m wrong. > > Apologies around. Yeah, me too. Let me take the opportunity to recommend [ccleaner](http://www.ccleaner.com/), though. Aggressive purging of stuff you didn’t even know you had! Like a colonic irrigation for your hard drive! ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/34 "2006-01-31T10:43:00Z")
Yeah, I downloaded CCleaner last night thanks to this thread, and it dumped an extra 110 Mb from my drive. On a small disk like mine, that’s very handy. Now a boot-time defrag with PerfectDisk and it should all be running a little faster. (Ironically a significant minority of my disk space is taken up with stuff to speed up the computer’s performance.) ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/35 "2006-01-31T10:45:10Z")
**Eleusis** , I must also offer my apologies: deleting those “shortcut” files does indeed seem to delete the hidden files too. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/36 "2006-01-31T12:31:34Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > To address the Avast question (which may have been answered but I kinda skimmed past the IE back-and-forth) it does claim to be freeware, but mine expired something like 3 months after I downloaded it, and will no longer download new definitions until I purchase the registered version. Some new meaning of freeware that I wasn’t previously aware of, really. What you talkin’ 'bout? [ > [@](#): > > …ALWIL Software, the producer of avast!, decided in June 2001 to help to solve this situation by offering avast! Home Edition free of charge for home users who do not use their computer for profit. To get industry leading antivirus protection for your home PC, download the software, and then register it. > > The whole process is very simple: you need to download the program from the avast! 4 Home Download page, selecting the appropriate language. Then you need to install it, which is a mostly an automatic process. Initially, **if you don’t register straight away, you’ll install the trial version, which is fully functional for sixty days**. During this period, you can **register yourself on the avast! 4 Home Free Registration page, and you will receive your license key by E-mail within 24 hours. Insert this key into the avast! 4 Home product, and you will receive the non-restricted version of avast! 4 Home Edition, including access to the update service (the incremental update of the virus database), for one year. After this period you can reregister to obtain a new free license key.** > > avast! 4 Home Edition can only be used by home users that do NOT use their computer for profit. If you do not meet both conditions, you should download avast! 4 Professional Edition instead, which may also be trialed for up to 60 days before you will need to purchase a valid license key… ]([http://www.avast.com/eng/free\_virus\_protectio.html](http://www.avast.com/eng/free_virus_protectio.html)) [Free Registration page.](http://www.avast.com/i_kat_207.php?lang=ENG) CMC freeware junkie! ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/37 "2006-01-31T12:38:02Z")
Strange; I’ll admit it was quite a while ago that it expired on me, but I know that I completed their registration process at the same time that I downloaded it, and never got a free key (although it is possible it ended up in my spam folder, I suppose) and could swear it had some fee attached to the registration page when it redirected me there after it expired. I stand confusedly corrected. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/38 "2006-01-31T12:39:39Z")
There might be a time limit on the key. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192/39 "2006-01-31T16:09:09Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > What you talkin’ 'bout? > [ > [url=http://www.avast.com/i\_kat\_207.php?lang=ENG]Free Registration page.](http://www.avast.com/eng/free_virus_protectio.html) > > CMC freeware junkie! Thanks for the tip, man 🙂 Me, I just finished heavy-duty maintenance on my computer. Crap cleaned, cache cleared, everything updated, files reorganised, keyboard cleaned and the keys rearranged (and what a headache that is turning out to be), virus and adware scanned for the first time in over a year (results: 0 viruses, 0 adware - guess that firewall is doing its job, or maybe my scanners are just broken), uninstalled and reinstalled Avast ( :smack: ) and defragmented twice. Yeah, I have a bad habit of doing all my “periodic” upkeep at once. Computer does seem a bit faster though 😃 > [@jjimm](#): > > **Eleusis** , I must also offer my apologies: deleting those “shortcut” files does indeed seem to delete the hidden files too. I’m pretty sure that not everything in Content.IE5 is in Temporary Internet Files, though. About 6 months ago I nuked everything in Temporary Internet Files in frustration and ran a virus scan and noticed it taking forever in a folder called Content.IE5… which I’d never seen or heard of before. So I open it up and behold, it is full of crap. So much crap, in fact, that the monumental task of deleting all the folders at once crashed my computer, and doing them one by one took a fair bit more waiting around than I liked. I decided to take care of it somehow… later… and didn’t actually do so until yesterday. So yeah. I wish I knew what Microsoft was thinking when it came up with this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-the-hell-have-my-temporary-internet-files-disappeared-to/342192.md?page=1)