Vista IE7 Cache & Cookies Folder, Temp Directory and History Location
In Windows XP with Internet Explorer 7, the location of default IE cache folder, or more commonly known as Temporary Internet Files (TIF) directory is pretty straight forward. However, it’s not the case in Windows Vista, due to introduction of Protected Mode security feature. With Protected Mode on, IE7 effective running as low privilege process and can only write or read in Low versions of cache folder, cookies folder, TEMP directory, Temporary Internet files directory and recently browsed history.
Unless you turn off UAC or disable Protected Mode for IE, in Windows Vista, most of the cache, temporary files, cookies and history will be stored in special Low version location as below:
Cache: %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low
Temp: %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp\Low
Cookies: %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\Low
History: %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History\Low
So if you’re running IE in Protected Mode, and want to access to the cache folder or other IE folders to retrieve or browse something, you have to use the following trick, because the Low version directory locations are hidden and protected by default as well.
- Open Windows Explorer.
- Click on Organize drop-down menu.
- Click on “Folder and Search Options”.
- Click on “View” tab.
- Select “Show hidden files And folders” option. You may need to double click on “Hidden files and folders” option to see these sub-options.
- Unselect (untick) “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” option just 2 lines below the hidden files and folders setting.
- Click OK when done.
- Navigate to the folder location where you want to browse its Low versions of contents. For example, to retrieve Internet files such as FLV flash movie, open %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low folder.
If you cannot see the “Low” folder exists in the directory listing, click anywhere after the end of the path in Address Bar, and then append \Low to the original path, and press Enter.
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Entries (RSS)
March 7th, 2009 12:34
Thank you! I was eventually able to find my cookies folder following your directions. But I had more security settings to clear up before I could actually get inside the folder. I had to uncheck “Hide protected operating system files” in addition to simply showing hidden files to finally see the cookies folder. I then had to go into the folder properties, security, advanced settings for my login ID, edit the advanced settings and remove the “Deny” for “Everyone” group.
THEN I was able to selectively delete the cookies for sites I don’t want on my machine, and the really old ones; leaving things like MS live (for hotmail), google, and a few others I accept deliberately.
I was only able to do these things because I had a Windows 2000 training class years ago. Good luck to the rest of you out there who want to get under the hood of Vista — Ouch!
January 16th, 2009 12:19
Thank you!! It was taking forever to find this on my own and I was about to uninstall Vista and go back to XP.
October 19th, 2008 17:09
I have seen in my pc i am not able to find the cokkies folder through either of the ways suggested. Please let me know , if there is some other solution.
June 30th, 2008 12:41
[...] Vista IE7 Cache & Cookies Folder, Temp Directory and History Location » My Digital Life: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/26/vista-ie7-cache-cookies-folder-temp-directory-and-history-l... [...]
May 7th, 2008 16:37
This worked for me in Low/Content.IE5 folder –
1) sort Explorer’s folders by date,
2) open the most recent folder and work down towards earlier dates.
The faded folders seem to have the most items, the unfaded looked unused.
3) Set the folder view to details.
4) Sort the folder by size, and look at the largest files. flv’s are usually 3M and up.
Sometimes flv’s are labeled, sometimes they are labeled getvideo[n] with no extension.
5) Copy what you want to the folder of your choice. Add extension if needed. See if it works.. Rename the file to something worthwhile and then
Repeat until you have looked in all for which you have sufficient patience.
March 31st, 2008 18:23
This still does not work, Explorer shows several folders in the Low directory, but flv files, etcetera are not displayed. How do we actually find the flvs?