Internet Explorer 6 Privacy and Cookies - Clear the Website Cache Manually

SUMMARY: For privacy reasons or to troubleshoot Internet Explorer 6 problems, clear the website cache.

Internet Explorer 6 normally keeps a cache (a backup copy) of certain parts of recently-viewed webpages on your hard disk. This way, if you return to a page you just visited within the last few hours or days, Internet Explorer 6 can first check to see if the webpage has changed since it was cached on your hard disk.

If the currently-accessed page has not been changed recently, instead of having to load the entire webpage from the Internet, your web browser will instead load parts of it from your hard disk. Especially if you are accessing the Internet via a dial-up connection this can result in a huge speed increase for certain sites.

Situations may crop up, however, where you need to clear this cache. Perhaps you are working on a public machine and don't want others viewing details about the webpages you visited. Or perhaps Internet Explorer 6 is not working quite right; clearing the cache can sometimes solve stability and speed problems with the browser. To clear Internet Explorer 6's cache:

1. From Internet Explorer 6, choose "Tools" - "Internet Options".

2. When the "Internet Options" multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the "General" tab.

3. Click the "Delete Files" button.

4. Check "Delete all offline content".

5. Click "OK".

6. Wait (it could take a few seconds or a few minutes) for Internet Explorer 6 to clear its cache.