Internet, Networking, & Security > Browsers 54 54 people found this article helpful How to Clear the Cache in IE11 Temporary internet files can take up lots of unnecessary space By Tim Fisher Tim Fisher Facebook Twitter Senior Vice President & Group General Manager, Tech & Sustainability Emporia State University Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the VP and General Manager of Lifewire. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on April 24, 2022 Reviewed by Ryan Perian Reviewed by Ryan Perian Western Governors University Ryan Perian is a certified IT specialist who holds numerous IT certifications and has 12+ years' experience working in the IT industry support and management positions. lifewire's editorial guidelines Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Browsers Microsoft Chrome Safari Firefox What to Know Open Internet Explorer 11 > in upper-right corner, tap gear icon > Safety > Delete browsing history.Uncheck all options except Temporary Internet files and website files. Select Delete. This article explains how to clear temporary internet files, or the cache, in Internet Explorer 11. Learn how to clear the cache in other browsers if you use Chrome, Edge, or Firefox. How to Clear the Cache in Internet Explorer 11 The cache includes copies of the text, images, videos, and other data from recently viewed websites that are stored on your hard drive. These temporary files remain on the computer until they expire, the cache becomes full, or you remove them manually. With IE 11 open, locate the gear icon from the right side of the browser, and choose Safety > Delete browsing history. If the menu bar is enabled, select Tools > Delete browsing history. Or, press Ctrl+Shift+Del on the keyboard. Uncheck all options except the one labeled Temporary Internet files and website files. Select Delete at the bottom of the window. That window closes, and the mouse icon changes to the wait cursor for a few moments. When the cursor returns to normal, or the success message displays at the bottom of the screen, the temporary internet files are deleted. Deleting the temporary internet files in Internet Explorer is safe and won't remove other things like cookies, passwords, and other stored data. Tips for Clearing the Internet Explorer Cache Here are a few tips to follow: Older Internet Explorer versions, like IE10, IE9, and IE8, have similar procedures for clearing the cache. However, it's best to run the latest version of IE if you can. Avoid clearing the cache in IE manually by using a program that does it for you. One popular system cleaner is CCleaner. Make sure Temporary Internet Files is chosen under the Internet Explorer area of the Custom Clean > Windows section. If you want to delete other Internet Explorer data like cookies, browsing or download history, form data, or passwords, put a check in the box next to that option while in Step 2. IE's temporary internet files settings can be changed through Internet Options. Enter the inetcpl.cpl command in the Run dialog box (WIN+R) and then go to General > Settings to find the Website Data Settings window. Go to Internet Options to choose the maximum size of the cache. You can also force IE to check for new website data and avoid the cache every time you visit the page, every time you use IE, automatically (the default option), or never. By default, Internet Explorer stores temporary internet files in this folder, but you can change the location. Why IE Stores Temporary Internet Files The idea behind temporary internet files is that you can access the same content again without loading it from the website. If the content is stored on your computer, the browser can pull up that data instead of downloading it again, which saves bandwidth and page loading times. What ends up happening is that only the new content from the page downloads, while the rest that's been unchanged is pulled from the hard drive. Besides better performance, temporary internet files are used by some agencies to collect forensic evidence of someone's browsing activities. If the content remains on the hard drive (that is, if it hasn't been cleared away), the data can be used as evidence that someone accessed a particular website. Deleting the temporary files stored by IE is not the same as removing Windows tmp files. That procedure is appropriate for deleting data left over by programs not specific to IE, like third-party installers. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up! Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit