Disk Cleanup showing 2.9GB Temporary Internet Files

CountMike · 13 Aug 2017

I can see files:

Disk Cleanup showing 2.9GB Temporary Internet Files-image.png

lx07 · 13 Aug 2017

sygnus21 said:

clicking on "View files" shows nothing in the folder. Nothing.

There are a couple of problems with that "View Files" button.

Firstly it opens %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE but the contents of this folder are system files. You will not see them unless you go into folder settings and both select "Show hidden files" and untick "Hide protected operating system files"

Secondly Edge stores temporary files in \INetCache\Low\IE (and other places in INetCache). Whether they should be included in Disk Cleanup total I don't know but they definitely aren't in "View Files"

You could try deleting the whole INetCache folder (you need to do this from another account and take ownership first) but most likely if TreeSize says they aren't there it is just a reporting bug in disk cleanup.

If you do delete INetCache it is recreated next time you log on. I use this batch file to do it quite often (when Egde breaks).

Code:

::  Note the /d Y on takeown - it means answer prompt with Y
::  See http://serverfault.com/questions/786764/takeown-you-do-not-have-permission-to-read-the-contents-of-directory

set a="C:\Users\Hali\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache"

if not exist %a%\ goto END

takeown  /f  %a% /r /d Y
icacls       %a% /grant "%USERDOMAIN%\%USERNAME%":(F) /t
rmdir        %a% /s /q

:END

sygnus21 · 13 Aug 2017

Though, I already had "show hidden files" unticked, I didn't have "Hide protected operating system files" unticked. Unticking that box, did show files; however they're nowhere near the 741mb of data that can't be deleted...

Disk Cleanup showing 2.9GB Temporary Internet Files-netcache-files.png

You could try deleting the whole INetCache folder (you need to do this from another account and take ownership first) but most likely if TreeSize says they aren't there it is just a reporting bug in disk cleanup.

I was able to delete the files, once they were shown. Running Disk Cleanup again resulted in no change... DC still shows 741 temp internet files.

Wiley Coyote · 13 Aug 2017

Oh the folders and files are there alright. Latest date on the folders is 05/09/2017 and none of them have more than 3 files of 1KB each.

Like I said: "This is funny". At least to me anyway.

sygnus21 · 13 Aug 2017

WOW... you don't have the issue we do. Bravo

sygnus21 · 13 Aug 2017

lx07 said:

If you do delete INetCache it is recreated next time you log on.

Yes, these do recreate themselves.

BTW these files are also on my laptop, yet it does NOT have the issue I (on my desktop) and many others have. With that, I'm thinking those aren't the issue since both machines have them, but only my desktop can't delete a certain portion (741mb) of temp internet files.

Wiley Coyote · 13 Aug 2017

sygnus21 said:

WOW... you don't have the issue we do. Bravo

No but I have other problems (not PC related) that are much more serious.

Can't support this, but my suspicion is this started when I ran D/C following one of the Cumulative Updates. It ran for over an hour before completing. Just my thoughts on this. Nothing to back up the idea though.

tracit99 · 13 Aug 2017

This is what I did today. ~~I am not going to mark it as Solved until I test it more~~. I have mark this issue as solved; however this is more of a workaround than a solution. I do not what caused this issue or how to prevent it from happening again. This is a treatment of the symptom and not a fix of the root cause.

Open Control Panel and choose Internet Options

Disk Cleanup showing 2.9GB Temporary Internet Files-control-panel.jpg

Choose Settings

Disk Cleanup showing 2.9GB Temporary Internet Files-intenet-properties.jpg

Choose Move folder
Move to a different location and choose OK and OK again.

Disk Cleanup showing 2.9GB Temporary Internet Files-website-data-settings.jpg

I moved mine to my E:\ drive.

Disk Cleanup showing 2.9GB Temporary Internet Files-website-data-settings-2.jpg

Sign out/Sign in.

Now run Disk Cleanup as Administrator and choose OK. When it completes run it again to make sure Temporary Internet Files is now zero or very small.

Disk Cleanup showing 2.9GB Temporary Internet Files-disk-cleanup.jpg

For those that are hardcore and want to move Temporary Internet Files back to the default location:
C:\Users\user name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache do not waste your time using the above procedure.
You will end up with this:
C:\Users\user name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Temporary Internet Files as the location. Windows for some reason always appends whatever location that you choose with \Temporary Internet Files.

Use this solution here.

Bree · 15 Aug 2017

Worked for me.

tracit99 said:

...For those that are hard core and want to move Temporary Internet Files back to the default location...

Yep, I'm 'hardcore'. :)

Flashorn · 15 Aug 2017

After upgrading to .540 I cleaned with disk cleaner and it did actually clear 2,8 gigs of space on the C:/ drive.

Took a heck of long time but, I let it go and it actually worked.

Used CCleaner afterwards and saved another 800 MB of space. So, total of 3.6 Gigs saved.

Installed another little game and lost that saved space.

Games still don't play as nice on 10 as on 7.

Flashorn.