What are Temporary Internet Files?

Temporary Internet Files are pieces of web pages that are downloaded to your computer in order to save time if you open the same web site again. Because they are downloaded onto your computer it doesn t need to re-download them from the web site, meaning it can load them a lot quicker.

Why Would I need to Clear my Temporary Internet Files?

If you update your website you may need to clear your Temporary Internet Files. This is because your computer will try and load the older versions of files instead of checking the web site to see if there s anything new. Clearing them forces the computer to check the web site again for any new files meaning it will definitely have the latest version.

How do I Clear my Temporary Internet Files?

In Internet Explorer 9, if you go to the top right corner of the screen, you should see some symbols similar to the following:

If you click on the highlighted symbol, a drop down menu will appear. If you click on the highlighted option as shown below you will be taken to the ‘Internet Options page.

In the Internet Options page, under the general tab, there is a section called ‘Browsing History . In this section is a button labelled ‘Delete… .

Clicking this button will bring up another window, showing all of the different types of data you can remove.

The only box you need to make sure is ticked is the ‘Temporary Internet Files box. You also need to make sure that the ‘Preserve Favourites and Website Data box is unticked, because if you have your web site favourited and need to clear the temporary internet files it will preserve them meaning the problem still exists.

Ticking the other boxes is optional but side effects such as losing current sessions may occur if you clear these pieces of data.