Clearing temporary Internet files

You can clean out those temporary Internet files any time you want. It's never necessary to do so, though doing it just before performing some task that operates on all files in your system, such as a virus scan or disk defragmentation, is useful. Also, there's no such thing as a ''necessary'' or ''required'' temporary Internet file. So you can never do any harm by wiping them off of your computer.

Deleting temporary Internet files is much like deleting cookies. The steps are as follows:

1. Click Tools and choose Internet Options or choose Tools → Internet Options from Internet Explorer's menu bar.
2. Under the Browsing History group, click Delete.
3. Select Temporary Internet Files and then click Delete.
4. Click OK.

If you have a slow Internet connection, viewing pages you've viewed in the past might seem to take a little longer. That's because Internet Explorer has to download everything from scratch again. No temporary Internet files are left that Internet Explorer can use as an alternative. If you have a fast Internet connection, you might not notice any difference at all.