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IE10 implemented the WebCache which appears to be the new way of doing Temporary Internet Files.
The location of this is C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WebCache

In my situation we have a terminal server where the user profiles are limited to 15MB of disk space, which has always been more than enough prior to installing IE10. The new WebCache folder has increased the amount of disk space required by nearly 500%, and while space is cheap there is a technical limitation which requires the quotas to be set low.

I have investigated the group policy settings, and there are a bunch of line items that are specific to IE10. Two items of note are 'Allow websites to store indexed databases on client computers' and 'Allow websites to store application caches on client computers', both of which I have set to disabled. It appears however that these items refer to something else, as the WebCache files continue to be re-created.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of talk on the internet about this being an issue, though the few incidents I have read about have had similar trouble reigning in the size of this WebCache folder.

So far the only thing that seems to work is revoking the users permission to access the WebCache folder. While this works, it is far from what I would consider to be a recommended solution.

Does anyone have any insight into how I can limit the file size of the WebCache or prevent it from existing all together via GPO?

Melikoth
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  • If you're using Roaming Profiles (Or any profiling solution, really) you may be better off simply excluding that folder from being copied back. In fact, if it's in 'Local' it shouldn't be anyway. Additionally, IE Temporary Internet Files are stored in the profile, too. – Dan Jul 19 '13 at 14:24
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    As an aside, I'm a huge fan of [RemProf](http://ctrl-alt-del.com.au/CAD_TSUtils.htm) for terminal servers. I set it to run nightly to clean up leftover local profiles. – Dan Jul 19 '13 at 14:29
  • The existing GPO settings keep the Temporary Internet Files clean enough to stay under quota, so even though they are in the users profile they've never been a problem. We're actually using local profiles on this machine as it sits in a small isolated domain. A nightly cleanup won't work well in this case, as once the quota is reached users are unable to launch some of the applications. I think I can still find a use for RemProf elsewhere though. – Melikoth Jul 19 '13 at 18:31
  • After some observation it appears that the WebCache files for our users fluctuate between 32 and 50MB, so I have increased the quotas to compensate for that. Still no word on how make the GPO work as expected. – Melikoth Jul 29 '13 at 13:35
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    An associated topic is discussed here: http://tinyurl.com/m7e8whu The problem is that webcache is *not* in the roaming profile which is a secondary problem as it means that cookies do not roam between servers in a terminal server/XenApp environment. That is darn annoying. A hotfix was supposedly released last week (nearly a year after been reported) but early feedback is that it doesn't work – Rob Nicholson Apr 25 '14 at 09:29
  • Per an MS MVP, the answer seems to be what you've already done by revoking write access to this folder. Client side scripts supposedly create this folder upon approval from a UAC prompt to the user. Read this and let me know your thoughts: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ie/en-US/efb0c9ef-130c-454b-907c-8059fbadec7e/how-to-manage-the-size-of-webcache-in-ie10-using-group-policy – Brad Bouchard Apr 27 '14 at 21:09
  • We never noticed any UAC prompts during our testing, but perhaps they were being suppressed by citrix or some other pre-existing setting? We've since moved on to IE11, which more or less solved any problems we were having. Interestingly (to me anyhow), that TechNet question was started by me. Not a big fan of them automatically marking whatever MVP answers as a solution after 2 weeks though, I get a lot of false hope from those. – Melikoth Jun 12 '14 at 18:53
  • Would you mind adding this as an Answer? – MichelZ Jun 23 '14 at 08:43
  • Are you referring to the TechNet response or the switch to IE11? wouldn't consider either of those valid responses for resolutions. Switching to IE11 ignored the issue more than truly resolving it. The TechNet response claims that these files shouldn't be created unless a UAC prompt is acknowledged by the client, but they are created on opening IE even without an acknowledgement. – Melikoth Jun 23 '14 at 18:37
  • Note that "revoking the users permission to access the WebCache folder" will cause IE to not work properly for at least some websites. – Roland Pihlakas Mar 03 '19 at 01:56

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Webcache is part of WinINET and is loaded before IE (as other WinINET. To stop the caching you need to tell WinINET to stop caching.

Credit to http://www.tenforums.com/general-support/37841-disable-webcachev01-dat.html

First, stop the following task in task scheduler: Microsoft > Windows > Wininet

Second step is to delete the dcom REGEDIT search for this GUID:{3EB3C877-1F16-487C-9050-104DBCD66683} Delete this GUID You will have to change the ownership to your user to be able to delete this key.

Not pretty but it seems IE is piggybacking WinINET

AngryCarrotTop
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  • Thanks for finding that and posting it up.I've since moved on from working with IE10 myself, but I'll mark this to help others out. – Melikoth Sep 20 '16 at 11:04
  • Google popped me to this old thread. I was looking for wininet cache disabling in windows 10 - it will still be somewhat relevant for someone hopefully. – AngryCarrotTop Sep 21 '16 at 14:03
  • When you'll disable it this way on Windows 10, Microsoft Edge will loose ability to remember cookies. Seems like it's using WinInet cache to store them. – SeeR Dec 13 '17 at 09:37
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You can try enabling the group policy setting:

User Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer > Delete Browser History

"Allow deleting browsing history on exit" = Enabled

Алексей Максимов
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If your users don't require it you can turn off "Allow web caches and Databases"

patilmalla
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