Clearing Your Temporary Internet Files:
A Guide To Tossing Your Cookies
While most temporary internet files are harmless, some can store personal information you have entered into online forms (name, email address, phone numbers, etc). Some can be used to ‘track’ your machines traffic, allowing companies and individuals to build an online profile of the sites you visit. Some can even contain malicious code. For these reasons (and more!) it’s a good idea to clear your internet history occasionally.
Internet Explorer:
Internet Explorer allows you to clear your temporary internet files outside of the program itself. To clear your temporary internet files, go to Start >> Control Panel >> Internet Options. The screen that opens should have a Browsing History section, with the Delete button directly under it. Clicking the button will bring up this screen:
You can toggle any options you wish to clear from your machine, but the recommended options should be pre-selected. Click Delete to clear these files. It could take some time if you have never done it before.
Firefox:
To clear your files in Firefox, open Firefox and go to Tools >> Options in your menu bar. When the Options window has opened, click on Privacy. The bottom of the window should contain a Private Data section. Click the Clear Now button to bring up your temporary internet file window. Select the components you wish to clear and click Clear Private Data Now.
Opera:
To clear your files in Opera, open Opera and go to Tools >> Preferences in your menu bar. When your Preferences window opens, click the Advanced tab. The left side of the window will now contain History and Cookies. Clicking either will allow you to manage them. Note: Temporary Internet Files are referred to as Disk Cache in Opera, and should be cleared when clearing your history.
Google Chrome:
To clear your files in Google Chrome, click the “Wrench” icon and go to Clear Browsing Data. Select the options you want and click the Clear Browsing Data button to complete the operation.
Safari:
To clear your files in Safari, click the History option in your toolbar, and then click the Clear History option at the bottom of the list.
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