{"id":43672,"date":"2015-06-01T06:00:46","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T13:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mcafee.com\/?p=43672"},"modified":"2025-08-15T09:00:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T16:00:24","slug":"what-is-a-cache","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/what-is-a-cache\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Cache?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps someone has told you that you need to \u201cclear your cache,\u201d but what does this mean and why should you do it? A cache is a folder of recently visited webpages, which is stored on your computer\u2019s hard drive, and maintained by your Internet browser.<\/p>\n<p>The purpose of a cache is to speed up the loading of webpages. Your computer\u2019s hard drive collects data from websites that you visit, so that when you visit them again, certain aspects of the previously visited pages (such as graphics) don\u2019t have to be reloaded the next time, and this makes the loading time a little bit shorter.<\/p>\n<p>But the space your cache has on your hard drive is limited, and over time, it can get congested. Data that hasn\u2019t been accessed for a while gets tossed out to make room for new data from the new pages that you visit.<\/p>\n<p>And sometimes, the cache process doesn\u2019t work properly. The result is an incompletely loaded page, or a page that looks odd because it&#8217;s supposed to load new content but it\u2019s showing old content. (Sometimes, page loading problems aren\u2019t caused by a faulty cache, but this is such a common cause that you&#8217;ve probably heard people say, \u201cYou need to clear your browser\u2019s cache.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>So, now you know what a cache is, here are some specific steps to clear it on different browsers:<\/p>\n<p>How to clear your cache in Chrome:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In the upper right of the browser click the little icon that says \u201cCustomize and control Google Chrome\u201d when you hover over it with your cursor<\/li>\n<li>Click History<\/li>\n<li>Click \u201cClear browsing data\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>How to clear your cache in Internet Explorer:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In the upper right of Internet Explorer, click the gear icon or \u201cTools\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Click Internet Options<\/li>\n<li>Under \u201cBrowsing History\u201d you\u2019ll see a delete button; click that.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you use another browser, and there are a few, search online for instructions on how to clear your cache.<\/p>\n<p>Another option you have is to use software (free or paid) designed to clean the clutter from your computer and devices. These programs often work well, but sometimes they work too well and clean more than they are supposed to. It\u2019s always a good idea to backup your information before cleaning your computer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps someone has told you that you need to \u201cclear your cache,\u201d but what does this mean and why should&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":674,"featured_media":208738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10661,13],"tags":[1814,3923],"coauthors":[3973],"class_list":["post-43672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet-security","category-privacy-identity-protection","tag-computer-security","tag-email-and-web-security"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is a Cache? | McAfee Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Perhaps someone has told you that you need to \u201cclear your cache,\u201d but what does this mean and why should you do it? A cache is a folder of recently\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is a Cache? | McAfee Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Perhaps someone has told you that you need to \u201cclear your cache,\u201d but what does this mean and why should you do it? 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