Why does IE still save and update files in the temp folder when caching is off?

Question

In IE I changed the cache setting to

"Every time I visit the web page"

However, I noticed in the directory

\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files

that the files are still being stored in here and updated each time the page is called.

Is caching still on?

Thank You.

Answer 1

"Every time I visit the web page"

Because I don't think this does disable the cache in IE - in fact I don't think you can completely disable the cache in IE?!

I think this setting does literally what it says... it "Checks for newer versions of stored pages every time I visit the webpage". It could check for a newer version by requesting just the headers... Last-Modified, If-Modified-Since, ETag, perhaps the reported file size etc. without downloading the file. If, by these checks, IE does not think the page has changed then the cached page will be used.

From this KB article... How Internet Explorer cache settings affect Web browsing:

Every visit to the page: When you return to a page you viewed previously, Internet Explorer should check to see whether the page changed since you last viewed it. If the page has changed, Internet Explorer displays the new page and stores it in the Temporary Internet Files. Note that selecting this option can slow down browsing between pages you have already viewed.