How to clean Infected Temporary Internet Files in Windows

This article guides you stepwise to clean infected Temporary Internet Files stored on a computer by the most popular Windows browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer.

Clean infected temporary internet files

 

What are Temporary Internet Files?

When you go to any website on the Internet, your web browser stores small pieces of data from that particular site so that pages load quicker during subsequent visits. Windows PCs store this type of data in a cache file or a folder called “Temporary Internet Files”. Deleting the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder stored on your computer is perfectly safe and can help address various issues caused by corrupted or infected files stored in the browser’s cache.

You can find below the default locations where every major internet browser is storing the temporary internet files:

  • For Google Chrome: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache
  • For Mozilla Firefox: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxx.default\cache
  • For Opera: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Opera\Opera\cache
  • For Internet Explorer, temporary internet files are usually stored in these folders:

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files

 

How to clean infected Temporary Internet Files

To clear your browser’s Temporary Internet Files or cache, follow the steps below:

  1. First reboot Windows in Safe Mode with Networking. Check this article for step-by-step instructions.
  2. Then you will have to choose one of these two options:

Option A – Show hidden files and folders and manually delete the corresponding files.

To display hidden files, folders, and drives on Windows follow these instructions. Browse to the respective location(s) and delete the infected temporary Internet files, then restart your computer normally.

 

Option B – Start the corresponding internet browser and use the option to clear Internet Cache.