Normally, we don’t bother about the space used for offline files. Sometimes we don’t know where the extra space on our drives is getting used. But being a smart Windows user, you should be careful about the disk space. By default, Windows follows the policy of configuring and allotting 10% of disk space to cache offline files.
Automatic caching can be set on any network share. When a user opens a file on the share, the system automatically stores a copy of the file on the user’s computer. Sometimes this automatic caching consumes a considerable disk space. In other case, if the temporary cached files doesn’t matters for you then you may want to have no caching of disk space on your drive. To do that, you need to configure the offline files tab in order to disable amount of disk space to use for temporary offline files.
Disable Automatic Caching Of Temporary Files Using Registry Editor
1. Press
Windows Key + R combination, type put
Regedt32.exe in Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to this registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
3. In the right pane location,
create a new sub-key using
Right Click ->
New ->
Key. Name it as
NetCache. Now come to the right pane of this sub-key,
create a
DWORD value using
Right Click ->
New ->
DWORD. Name it as
DefCacheSize. Double click on the DWORD so created in order to modify it, you’ll got this:
4. In the above box, first select the base type as
Decimal. Then input the Value data accrding to the requirement you want the computer to use the disk space percentage, for ex. If you want computer should use 15.45% of the total disk, then you should input 1545 there.
To disable amount of disk space to use for temporary offline files, input
0. Click
OK when done.
That’s it. You’ve just imposed a limitation on Windows to cache temporary offline files, according to your requirements.
Configure Group Policy for Default Offline Cache Files in Windows
1. Press
Windows Key + R combination, type
gpedit.msc in Run dialog box and hit
Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
2. Navigate here :
Computer Configuration ->
Administrative Templates ->
Network ->
Offline Files
3. In the right pane, look for the setting named
Default cache file, it must have
Not Configured status by default. Double click on the same setting, you’ll get this:
4. In the above window, click on
Enabled and specify your requirements to store offline files according to percentage of disk space. You can enter
0 to
completely disable caching. If you select Not Configured / Disabled (default setting), Windows will automatically use 10 percent of disk size for caching. After configuring, click
Apply followed by
OK.
That’s it! You’ve again configured the disk space percentage for caching.
Note: If you configure the disk space using Local Group Policy Editor, the entry for Registry Editor is automatically created by Windows and vice versa.
