Find Your Temporary Internet Files Location

Your temporary Internet files location is different, pending the browser you use and the version of Windows operating system you are on. Below, you will find the locations, initially sorted by the latest version of each browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome.

Accessing the below folders may require you to show hidden files and folders. If need be, follow the instructions in this link: Show Hidden Files and Folders

For these instructions, we will be using ‘C:’ as our system drive; it may be different for you.

Manually Purge Internet Files

This requires you to navigate to the specific folder(s) and delete the files.

Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE)

Open Computer, My Computer, or Windows Explorer and navigate to:

Windows 7 / Windows Vista

C:\Users\[USER ACCOUNT]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\

C:\Users\[USER ACCOUNT]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low\

Windows XP / Windows 2000

C:\Documents and Settings\[USER ACCOUNT]\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\

If the only account is the Administrator account, substitute ‘Administrator’ for [USER ACCOUNT].

Mozilla Firefox

Open a browser window and type the following into the address bar and press Enter: about:cache

This shows where your cache folders are, and the contents of.

Google Chrome

Open Computer, My Computer, or Windows Explorer and navigate to:

Windows 7 / Windows Vista

C:\Users\[USER ACCOUNT]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache

Windows XP / Windows 2000

C:\Documents and Settings\[USER ACCOUNT]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\

If the only account is the Administrator account, substitute ‘Administrator’ for [USER ACCOUNT].

Automatically Purge Internet Files

I realize all browsers have a built-in method to purge temporary Internet files, however, I prefer to have the folders automatically purged. I use a free program called CCleaner to accomplish this. I also use this app to purge all other temp files, such as C:\Windows\Temp, and my user profile temp directory. You can ‘Include’ those, and then set CCLeaner to purge them with the Custom files and folders rule. A bit of caution should you use this app…since messing with the registry is often a bad idea, I steer clear of the registry cleaning functionality, by un-ticking all reg cleaning options.