Why does Internet Explorer hang when accessing the Temporary Internet files (disk cache)?
A. Internet Explorer can enter a state where it almost immediately hangs and starts to use 100 percent of CPU time. In particular, when trying to delete Temporary Internet files via Tools, Internet Options triggers this behavior. Also, all attempts to manually delete files or folders from the Temporary Internet Files folder causes Windows Explorer to hang. This behavior occurs because the Temporary Internet files database is corrupt. The Temporary Internet files aren’t really files but entries in the %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat file. Deleting that file solves the problem. Open a Command Prompt, then exit Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer (iexplore.exe and explorer.exe, respectively, in Task Manager). Use the following command from a command prompt to delete the file: C:\>del “%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat” Restart Windows
