The folder
C:\Windows\System32\Config\SystemProfile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE\
caches temporary Internet Explorer files.
Although Microsoft does not want us to use the user interface of IE,
the engine still takes part in the Windows API and so is still used
by many programs.
Knowing which program produced these millions of file would require
examining the files. If you posted some of them, it might be possible
to guess the program that does this.
You could delete these files (I just deleted mine), where
the file container.dat should be skipped.
Or you could in Explorer right-click the C disk, select Properties
and click Disk Clean-up, select "Temporary Internet Files"
(and maybe some others) and click OK.
To avoid having these files in the first place, do the following.
Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed
- Run Start > Internet Options
- Position to the Advanced tab
- Place a check-mark next to
"Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed"
- Click OK.
This setting should in theory cause the IE engine to delete its
temporary files when closing.
If this does not solve the problem, see the following.
Running a cleanup task
The cleanup task can be run as a PowerShell script, contained in a .ps1
file. The contents of the file can be:
Remove-item "$env:systemroot\System32\Config\SystemProfile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE\*.*" -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Remove-item "$env:systemroot\SysWOW64\Config\SystemProfile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE\*.*" -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
You may run the file manually, or use the Task Scheduler
to run it daily. There are many sources to be found on the subject,
for example
How to create an automated task using Task Scheduler on Windows 10.
