Windows 7 forum: Cluttered Cache?

Use CCleaner, found here: http://download.cnet.com/CCleaner/3000-18512_4-10315544.html
The interface is easy to understand. Just leave the settings on default and use the cleaner portion of the application.

While you can clear out those files, there's little point, and it will have a few (minor) adverse effects. Namely that every time you go to a website, the browser checks the local cache files against what is on the server, and only downloads a new copy of the page if anything has changed. So, take these forum pages for example, which are littered with a bunch of pointless graphics. Unless any of those graphics files change, the browser will just use the local cached copy of the files instead of wasting time and bandwidth downloading them again, thus speeding up the overall page loading time.

If you delete those files, the browser will then just have to download them again, and it becomes a never ending game of cat and mouse. You delete the files, the browser just goes and downloads them again when you use it, rinse and repeat as necessary.

This is why I really hate to see people recommending programs like CCleaner to "fix" this "problem" because it shows that they are EXACTLY the sort of person who should NOT be using CCleaner. They quite clearly do not even understand the full implications of even the most basic default settings of the program, yet are recommending it anyway. CCleaner is intended to be something of a scalpel... Very precise and targeted, not a shotgun where you just kind of aim in the general direction of the target. It is a program intended for people who understand the various risks and rewards of each and every option, it's not some panacea like it's often promoted as.

The unfortunate reality is there are a lot of people out there who like to think they know more about a particular topic, such as computers, than they really do. These people will see an actual professional, a professional who knows what they're doing, using a program like CCleaner, so then they kind of latch onto that themselves. They don't understand anything they're looking at in CCleaner, but admitting their own ignorance would require a level of maturity these people will probably never reach. So in order to feign understanding on some topic, they run around talking about how great CCleaner is, and recommend it as the solution to just about every problem that can afflict a computer. In situations like yours, CCleaner will have a, pardon the pun, temporary effect at best. You'd need to clear out the temp internet files prior to every single scan, and you can already do that via the Internet Explorer options, so there's no need for an additional program like CCleaner. Just one more way you can easily spot the people who are talking out of their arse... They'll recommend CCleaner to perform some task that is already a function of Windows, or a program like Internet Explorer, but will make it sound like the only way to clear the recycle bin or temp internet files is using CCleaner, not just as a way to do both with a single button press... Which just tells you that they know so little about Windows they're apparently unaware of the existing methods in place for this.

IE I assume.
If I look at tools>internet options I see and option to adjust cache size.
Looks like 250MB is stock.
Perhaps try setting that to 50MB.
I think what will happen is IE will slowly work the cache down to 50MB.
That will give your AV a bunch less files to scan and not effect internet perf much.

I hope this does not earn me a 'WoJ'...........wrath of Jimmy.