Firefox and its elusive “Temp Directory”…

When you view the web using any browser, whether it be Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, etc., your computer stores all the HTML, images, and other files as you go in a temporary location on your computer.  Typically these files are cleared out once the specified size limit is reached, however more savvy users (see: nerds) prefer to have this done on a more frequent basis.  Some also prefer to change the location where these files are stored to avoid clutter or hard drive performance knocks.  Having an SSD as my OS drive, I choose to store these files on a separate HDD.

For firefox users, changing your “Temp Directory” isn’t quite as easy as it is in Internet Explorer.  In fact, no matter how hard the average Joe looks for it, he’ll find himself either tearing what hair he has left out, or giving up… So here you go!

1. Open Firefox and in the address bar, type: about:config

2. You’ll get a message about ‘voiding your warranty’, click the button that says “I’ll be careful, I promise!”

3. Right-click anywhere in the browser window and chose New > String.

4. It will prompt you to “Enter the preference name”, type browser.cache.disk.parent_directory and hit OK.

5. It will then prompt you to “Enter string value”, here you enter the location of where you want your temp files to be stored.  I have mine on Y:\TEMPNET (Y:\ is the letter for my other HDD).

6. Close and re-open Firefox and your new settings will be in effect.

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