Windows Tip: Clearing Internet Explorer cached data from the command line

Jerry Lees — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:14:08 +0000

As a Network Administrator sometimes you need to clear the browsing history, cookies, or the like for a entire community of users. Sure, you could tell them how to do it thinking that you were being super smart by providing instructions for them. However, as you well know there will be some who will be unable to follow the directions and you will spend 3 times the amount of time it took you to write the directions and refine them to a point where any one could do it— or so you thought. All the while, thinking about the amount of time you will save by having the users do it.

Why not be really lazy!!!??!? And do it with a batch script? You could then put it in their login script and it would happen at their next logon, or every logon for that matter. Well, there’s an easy way to do this with windows’ built in functions– it’s just obscure enough to not be found anywhere you would normally look!

Yo can preform many of the things I mentioned (and more) with Microsoft’s RUNDLL.EXE file, plus you don’t have to write a line of VBScript to accomplish the task!

Here is a short list of some tasks you can preform on IE, along with the command to do it… give them a shot!

Temporary Internet Files
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 8

Cookies
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 2

History
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 1

Form Data
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 16

Passwords
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 32

Delete All
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 255

Delete All – “Also delete files and settings stored by add-ons”
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 4351

These commands should work in Internet Explorer 7

The VBScript Network and Systems Administrator's Cafe » Internet Explorer

Windows Tip: Clearing Internet Explorer cached data from the command line