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Posted by: ePost Jan 4 2009, 12:32 PM

I haven't accepted cookies for quite sometime now and find that this is surprisingly easy to administrate. It's hardly any trouble at all. Blocking nearly all cookies and accepting just a few regulars by adding them "manually" resulted in a significant reduction of malware infections. I often search images for days and days and days - a bullet proof way to get loads of malware into your PC. And my security programs are not bad at all.

All this picture searching also results in a slow PC. Tons of material ends up in my cached folder. So I was wondering: can I block all access to Temporary Internet Files the same way I blocked all the cookies? I really don't need a copy of each and every site I go to. I sometimes feel that I store a copy of half the Internet in my cache. I sometimes visit almost a 1000 sites a day - sites that I don't intend to visit again. And images have big file sizes more often that not. They sit in my cache even though I have no use for them. I just visited the site. Also it is a pain in the behind when you land on a big site. Some blogs have hundreds of posts on one long page. IE takes forever to download such a big blog to Temporary Internet Files. It would make life easier if I didn't have to drag all this useless material around. And the malware hidden in it.

So: how can I disable IE's cache function in XP Home? Is there a way?

Posted by: MilesAhead Jan 4 2009, 01:39 PM

Check out http://www.sandboxie.com/
It's free and does all that stuff automatically. When you install it can create a button to run the default browser "sandboxed" meaning that anything that writes to the hard drive is redirected to a folder inside the sandbox. You can set options so that if you download something you want to keep you can either manually copy it out of the sandbox or be prompted for certain folders(some features may be in the paid version but the free version does all you need for system protection.)

When you quit all programs that are running sandboxed you can set it to automatically delete everything in the sandbox. This way you can set it to accept all cookies if you want. I have my browsers (Firefox and Opera) set to accept cookies but delete them when I close the browser.
For what you are doing Sandboxie would make things a lot easier.

Posted by: ePost Jan 4 2009, 01:49 PM

Sounds a bit like what BOClean is doing but Sandboxie sounds more thorough. I had hoped to find a way to just turn the sh*t offfffff. Is a new program really necessary?

Posted by: usasma Jan 4 2009, 02:07 PM

I've heard of it being turned off - but have never seen it done. I'd expect that your browsing speed would be significantly reduced, since each page would have to reload the entire page each time you either refreshed or moved away from the page.

So this would happen with every page you visited (if you disabled the Temporary Internet Files).

I'd suggest, as an alternative, that you tell IE to delete your browsing history when you close it.

Hmmm...Interestingly, you can turn it off (in IE7). Go to Tools...Internet Options....Browsing History Settings button.
There's lot's of nifty settings the you can experiment with there (to turn it off set the "Disk space to use" to 0)

Posted by: ePost Jan 4 2009, 02:14 PM

Thanks usasma, I'll try that. The point is that I never return to a site when I'm doing such a wast amount of research. Sometimes I really need to go back but having visited hundreds or thousands of pages I don't have a chance. When you hunt for a certain picture you use the same search terms. So a PC search in temp files returns a useless list of hundreds of sites.

Besides: you can store your browsing history on your privat Google account. Simultaneously - it just updates itself. Brilliant. No more garbage in your PC.

Posted by: ePost Jan 4 2009, 02:21 PM

It won't allow 0. "Disk space to use" can only go down to 8. For some strange reason.

Posted by: usasma Jan 4 2009, 03:00 PM

I'd set it at 8 and see how it impacts your browsing.
Another idea is to make the Temporary Internet Files directory (and sub-containers) "Read Only".

Posted by: ePost Jan 4 2009, 03:18 PM

It's faster now. Really. I'll try that other suggestion also. Thanks, usasma.

Other suggestions are still welcome - i'm in an experimental mood today.

Posted by: ePost Jan 4 2009, 03:33 PM

It seems to me that this makes no difference. IE still behaves like it used to...

Posted by: usasma Jan 4 2009, 03:55 PM

You may want to try an alternative browser. Firefox (with which I'm familiar) is very customizable. I've heard good things about the other major players also (Safari, Opera, Chrome).

Posted by: ePost Jan 4 2009, 04:05 PM

Year, I know. But Safari and Chrome have safety issues even though the companies deny it. That points to Opera or FireFox. And I actually have them. But I never really became a fan of them. So if IE could be costumized I'd prefer that...

Posted by: MilesAhead Jan 5 2009, 12:29 PM

If you really love IE try Maxthon. It's a tabbed browser based on IE with a bunch of plugins or addons written by Maxthon users. I do Firefox myself but Maxthon has some good points too. Way more customizable than IE.

It's also free as are all the plugins afaik.

Posted by: ePost Jan 8 2009, 07:38 PM

Thanks MilesAhead. I'll take a look at it. :-)

Posted by: raw Jan 8 2009, 08:46 PM

Instructions for disabling your Browser Cache.
Internet Explorer 7.x

1. Select Tools > Internet Options
2. Under the Browsing History section select the "Settings" button
3. On the "Temporary Internet files and History Settings" window make sure that under
Check for newer versions of stored pages you select the radio button entitled "Every time I visit the webpage"
4. Select OK
5. Select OK again
6. Exit IE and restart to enable the change

Posted by: ePost Jan 8 2009, 08:56 PM

I have that already. I'm in the news business so I have to make sure that all research material is updated. Never the less the cache fills up with vast amounts of old browsing history. Which I really don't need for more that 95 pct. of the time.

Posted by: raw Jan 8 2009, 10:13 PM

I see you already set the disk space to 8. I might have overlooked
this if it has been suggested.
IE>Tools>Internet Options - Click on the "Advanced" tab.
Scroll down to "Security", locate the box "Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed"
Verify it is selected. This won't block the cache, but will clean it out when you exit IE.
From Google (Advanced tab,Security) "Do not save encrypted pages to disk"

Here at BC we try to discourage members from editing registry settings, but this
link may help as a last resort.
http://www.windowsreference.com/windows-xp/disable-volume-caching-of-temporary-internet-files/

Posted by: ePost Jan 9 2009, 01:54 AM

Thanks for that link. I'll give it a try I think. I usually empty cache and cookies via Run. I write shell:cache. When it opens I mark it all (ctrl+a) and hit Delete. Same for cookies: Run -> write "shell:cookies" -> hit the Delete key. It's faster than CCleaner.

I liked Ad-Aware when I had it. It was a fine cookie eater but it's too slow. I don't even accept cookies anymore.

Posted by: ePost Jan 9 2009, 10:01 AM

Raw, I did it and I love the feeling: SPEED!

New pages opens right away. And for the browsing history: I now have that on my Google account. All you need to do is to enable the Web History option by clicking the link by that name. Here: http://i43.tinypic.com/2nl9vgp.jpg This opens a new page. When you get in there you just click the enable link. Then everything is like it used to but now the temps are not filling MY PC. They sit out there in cyberspace. Now ain't that just a thrill?

The history does not delete when you clean out you PC with fx. CCleaner. The google browsing history that you delete with CCleaner or ATF-Cleaner is only the part that in your PC. If one wants it deleted from Cyberspace also you'll need to log in to the Google account in an delete it separately and manually. But it's quickly done.

And needles to say: you do need to log in every day and every time if you want to store your browsing history.

Thank for all your help, guys. :-D

Posted by: raw Jan 9 2009, 07:32 PM

Good to hear. Glad I could help.