How Internet Explorer 3.x Caches Web Pages

• Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 3.0, 3.01, 3.02 for Windows 95

SUMMARY

This article describes how Internet Explorer 3.x for Windows 95 caches Web pages.

MORE INFORMATION

Internet Explorer 3.x uses multiple folders to cache the Web pages you access on the Internet. This behavior is different from previous versions of Internet Explorer, in which a single folder is used to cache Web pages. Using multiple folders to cache Web pages improves browsing performance by allowing Internet Explorer to search fewer pages at a time. Instead of searching all the pages in the cache at once, Internet Explorer 3.0 searches a portion of the pages in the cache and then searches the remainder of the cache only if the page is not found.

Each folder contains an index file that tracks the contents of the folder. When a new page is added to a folder, information about the page is added to the folder's index file. When Internet Explorer attempts to determine if a particular page is stored in the cache, it uses the information stored in the index file to determine if the page is stored in that folder. This behavior improves browsing performance by allowing Internet Explorer to search the cache without actually looking at the individual pages stored in the cache.

Internet Explorer 3.x uses the Cache1, Cache2, Cache3, and Cache4 folders located in the Windows\Temporary Internet Files folder to cache the Web pages you access. In addition to the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) documents, Internet Explorer may also use these folders to cache supplementary files such as graphics images and videos. If you remove Internet Explorer 3.x from your computer, the Temporary Internet Files and Cache1, Cache2, Cache3, and Cache4 folders are not removed. These folders are associated with an Application Programming Interface (API) that Internet Explorer uses that is not unique to Internet Explorer. Because other programs on your computer may also use this API, the cache folders are not removed when you remove Internet Explorer.

NOTE: You can manually delete the Temporary Internet Files and Cache1, Cache2, Cache3, and Cache4 folders after you remove Internet Explorer 3.x. However, if another program on your computer uses the API that these folders are associated with, the folders will be re-created the next time you run that program. To delete the Temporary Internet Files folder and its folders, click the Windows\Temporary Internet Files folder in Windows Explorer, and then click Delete on the File menu.

Additional query words: 3.00 win95 ie3 ie30 ie301 ie302

Keywords : msiew95
Version : WINDOWS:3.0,3.01,3.02
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :