WINDOWS 2000 PROFESSIONAL

MOVE THE INTERNET EXPLORER CACHE

Internet Explorer maintains a cache that contains elements, such as images, from the Web pages a user has visited. For subsequent visits to the page, IE can then pull these elements from the cache, speeding up browsing and reducing bandwidth use.

Windows assigns the IE cache a certain amount of disk space. But if a user visits several sites on a frequent basis, the cache could consume a lot of disk space.

To free up space, you might consider moving the cache to a different drive. You can modify the location of the IE cache either via IE's Options dialog box or by modifying the registry.

To modify the cache location in IE, go to Tools | Internet Options, and click Settings on the General tab. In the Settings dialog box, click Move Folder, browse to a new location, and click OK. After confirming the change, Windows will log you off to move the cache to the new location.

You can also modify the registry to move the cache. The following registry keys specify the path to the four cache folders:

* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Paths\path1

* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Paths\path2

* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Paths\path3

* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Paths\path4

If you choose to edit the registry to move the cache, you must restart the computer for the change to take effect.

NOTE: Editing the registry is risky, so be sure you have a verified backup before making any changes.