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How to dump the cache

By Eric Griffith

The cache is a Web browser's way of appearing to work faster. The cache, called Temporary Internet Files by some browsers, consists of HTML pages and graphics that you have looked at. These files are stored on your hard drive. When you revisit a site, if your browser sees that the content hasn't changed, it loads the pages from your cache instead of downloading them again.

Too many cached files can eventually bog down a system; thus you should purge them occasionally. Here's how.

In Windows, users of Internet Explorer 5.0 can click on the Tools menu (IE 4.0 users go to the Edit menu), Internet Options, General and click the Delete Files button. Click Settings and move the slider bar all the way to the left to limit IE's cache to a minimal number of files.

In Netscape Navigator 4.0 or higher, select the Edit menu and Preferences. Click Advanced, Cache and Clear Disk Cache. To set Netscape to take a minimal number of files as cache, type the number 512 in the slot for "Disk Cache."

Mac users with IE 4.0 or later select Edit, Preferences, Web Browser, Advanced and Empty Now. In Navigator 4.0 or higher for Mac, select Edit and Preferences. Click Advanced, Cache and Clear Disk Cache Now.

AOL 4.0 or higher users should hit the My AOL menu on the toolbar, select Preferences, then the WWW icon. Under the Temporary Internet Files area (called Cache on Macs), click on Delete Files (Empty Cache Now on Macs).