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How can i disable caching in Internet Explorer 9?

i browse to a page, and click a link. When i click Back, i need the browser to always re-fetch the page from the web-site.

i've tried disabling the browser cache by going into:

  • Tools
  • Internet Options
  • Under Browsing History, click Settings

  • Under Check for newer versions of stored pages, select Every time I visit the webpage

    enter image description here

Except that doesn't cause Internet Explorer 9 (32-bit (Windows 7 (64-bit( Professional)))) to reload the page when clicking the Back button.

How do i disable caching in Internet Explorer 9?

i use Fiddler to watch if Internet Explorer 9 makes an HTTP request to the server when i click the Back button:

enter image description here

And Internet Explorer 9 does not request the page from the server; instead serving it from the cache.

How do i disable caching in Internet Explorer 9?

i've tried changing the Browser Mode (the version of Internet Explorer that Internet Explorer 9 reports to the server) to IE8*, as well as changing the **Document Mode (the version of Internet Explorer rendering engine that Internet Explorer 9 uses to render the page), and in both cases the browser does not request the page when clicking back.

How do i disable caching in Internet Explorer 9?

Update: i tried reducing the maximum cache size in Internet Explorer 9 to the lowest allowable value: 8 MB:

enter image description here

and restarting my browser, but Internet Explorer 9 does not re-fetch the page from the cache when i click Back:

enter image description here

instead showing the old, cached, version of the web-page.

How do i disable caching in Internet Explorer 9?

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11
  • IE's probably caching the data in memory not disk. If that can't be controlled, you might want to consider using another browser where it can be like Firefox and adjusting its cache settings using information described here but with different values so that caching of both kinds is suppressed.
    – martineau
    Commented Aug 14, 2012 at 1:10
  • @martineau HTTP1.1 (RFC2616 ) dictates that browsers "SHOULD NOT" (emphasis not added) refresh a page when the user click's Back (or Forward). IE is (as is Firefox and Chrome) caching the data. It cannot be disabled through any IE program option (or Chrome option, but we cannot switch to any other browser - so it's a moot point).
    – Ian Boyd
    Commented Aug 14, 2012 at 15:08
  • So what's going to happen, the W3C police coming and arresting you for refreshing a page? Very doubtful. Can't switch browsers? Hogwash, millions have, including my 80 year old mother. An easier alternative for yours might be to have her use Ctrl+F5, one of the 47 Keyboard Shortcuts That Work in All Web Browsers to get a fresh copy of the web page being viewed. It's also possible in Firefox to install an add-on that will provide a toolbar icon that can be pressed to clear the cache on demand.
    – martineau
    Commented Aug 14, 2012 at 16:30
  • @martineau i could switch to another browser but it doesn't change the behavior - all browsers follow the RFC (test it). She can press F5, that's not the problem - the problem is that she has to press F5. Google, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, they've all solved by problem by adding no-cache, no-store. And i've been unable to convince the author of my mother's favorite site to do the same. So i'm left with a client-side permanent solution.
    – Ian Boyd
    Commented Aug 14, 2012 at 20:57
  • I was wondering by you needed the browser to do this. Again, if a different browser were used, such as Firefox or Chrome, you could use the Stylish browser extension to effectively modify the site without the need to convince its authors to change it for you. On the other hand, I'm sure your mum is capable of learning to press Ctrl+F5 (or hold down the Shift key while pressing the Back-Arrow button or key, which while not universal, also do the job in Firefox) when using this one website.
    – martineau
    Commented Aug 14, 2012 at 21:13

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
10

To do this, simply press F12 to bring up the Developer view, click the Cache menu, and select Always refresh from server. The next time you load a page in that tab, it will redownload everything every time you navigate.

This setting will not carry over to other tabs or be retained when you close the browser, however.

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2
  • 1
    My mother will not be able to accomplish that once; let alone every time she browses :(
    – Ian Boyd
    Commented Aug 13, 2012 at 23:52
  • Yay, now I can debug my .js files once again ;-)
    – Chris O
    Commented Aug 28, 2013 at 15:25
2

Can you force ie9 to use a local CSS that has the following in it:

<HTML><HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Expires" CONTENT="-1">
</HEAD><BODY>
</BODY>
</HTML>

In IE9, to use a local style sheet, simply click on the gear menu on the top right, and then click on Internet Options. Under the General tab, click the Accessibility button, and then check the checkbox labeled Format documents using my style sheet. Then browse to a text file with the code above.

Here's a screenshot of the option you want: enter image description here

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9
  • i don't control the HTML of the web-sites my mother is browsing. :(
    – Ian Boyd
    Commented Aug 13, 2012 at 23:51
  • @IanBoyd Local Style Sheets can be appended to any site you browse by the browser. You don't need access to the websites' code itself.
    – Ben Richards
    Commented Aug 14, 2012 at 0:05
  • @sidran32 Thanks for finding this, my IE isn't NEARLY as strong as my Safari... I really appreciate you pointing it out. +1
    – Everett
    Commented Aug 14, 2012 at 0:20
  • This doesn't work for the going back cache policy (i just tested it). If i click Back Internet Explorer doesn't issue another http request.
    – Ian Boyd
    Commented Aug 14, 2012 at 14:58
  • All right, I tried. I was looking for ANYTHING that would help. Thanks for letting me know. I'll leave this posted so that people know this isn't an answer.
    – Everett
    Commented Aug 14, 2012 at 20:40
1

The answer is: No, you cannot disable the cache in Internet Explorer 9.

  • you can limit the cache size
  • you can ask IE to refresh the page every time you navigate to it
  • you can press F5 to manually reload a page

But you can still be served cached versions of a page (i.e. a version that is not up-to-date with the state of the server).

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