Internet browsers have become one of the main software solutions for many users in their day-to-day PC. These are very complete programs that cover most of our needs when moving around the web and are made up of a multitude of elements. Among these we find the browser cache , something that we will talk about next.
It must be taken into account that these programs to which we refer here store a good amount of data of the users and the navigation as such. This is done to improve the user experience with the software. Although many consider it an inconvenience for privacy , the truth is that its usefulness is enormous. Thus, the program itself remembers many of the elements that we use in our sessions, such as visited URLs, passwords, credentials, etc.
This, as many of you have surely seen first-hand on hundreds of occasions, allows us to use this software in a more fluid way. But along these lines we are going to focus on an element that you have surely heard about on many occasions. It is the cache memory , a temporary storage system for cookies and other information on the websites we visit. Here are included HTML, CSS, JS objects, in addition to the images of those web portals.
Thus, the browser later uses this one-page cache to accelerate its loading speed, thereby reducing the number of requests sent to the server. But it must also be emptied from time to time and we are going to see some of the reasons.
Unexpected crashes in the web browser
Sometimes, as with many other programs of all kinds, we can experience certain crashes in it. These occur unexpectedly when moving around the Internet, so clearing the browser cache is one of the most effective solutions in this regard.
And it is that if we do not do this from time to time, this element can become saturated. Therefore, more than an advantage, the cache can become a problem if we do not use it properly.
Improve the operation of the program thanks to the cache
In the fairly common case that the cache has been storing data for a long time, it can also be a problem. In this case, the browser has to search through a huge number of files and cookies every time you make a request.
This can translate into a significant drop in performance of the software we are talking about. Therefore and in order to avoid overloading and running slower than it should, it is convenient to clear the cache periodically.
Clear cache after a configuration change
On the other hand, it may be the case that at a certain moment we have made some important modification to the software. By this we mean changes in browsing preferences related to language, privacy options, security, etc. The problem may occur if the stored data that have become obsolete in the cache continue to be used, which will result in changes do not become effective. At this point the best we can do again is clear the cache to start from scratch with the new configuration.
Free up disk space
And of course, all that information that is stored in the cache memory of the browser that we use regularly, occupies space on the disk drives . Therefore, the periodic deletion of this element, especially if we have never done it before, will help us to free part of those valuable megabytes in our team.