Windows 7 originally shipped with Internet Explorer version 8 as its web browser however any version of Windows from Windows XP onwards may have Internet Explorer 8 installed via Windows updates. The information provided here is more specific to Internet Explorer 8 than specific to Windows 7.

So what are temporary internet files? When you visit a website with your web browser it will store the web page and any associated content such as images in a special folder on your hard disk which is often called a cache. Should you return to the website in the future Internet Explorer will check its cache to see if it already has a copy of the website and it will also check the website to see if it has been changed. If the website has not changed and the browser already has a copy the page in its cache it will serve the web page to you from the cache rather than downloading it from the internet all over again. Caching web content can increase the speed that the page loads into your browser quite markedly and save traffic on your internet connection. If the page has changed and is different to the one cached on your hard drive Internet Explorer will download the page again but may not delete the earlier cached copy creating unnecessary clutter on your hard drive. This problem is made worse if you are an avid web surfer and have many pages in your cache, if unchecked the size of the cache can get quite out of hand and cause web browsing to slow down while IE searches its cache. Clearing these temporary internet files is the best solution.

To delete your Temporary Internet Files open up Internet Explorer and click on tools then Internet Options.

A new box will appear on your screen titled Internet Options. Roughly in the middle of the General tab you should see a section title Browsing History and in this section you should see a delete button. Click on the delete button.

A new screen will appear title Delete Browsing History. There are quite a few different things that you may delete from this screen however I dont recommend ticking every box unless you are prepared to start from scratch, particularly in regard to passwords and form data. Make sure Temporary Internet Files is ticked and click on the Delete button on the bottom of the screen.

It may take a minute or two to delete your temporary internet files if your cache is quite large. You dont need to stay in Internet Options while the cache is being deleted, you can simply click OK on the bottom of Internet Options and resume browsing while your cache is being deleted in the background.