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Prior to IE6, Internet Explorer introduced a mechanism for viewing cached files; you can access this mechanism by clicking Tools » Internet Options » General » Browsing History » Settings. In the TIF and History Settings dialog, click the View Files button. Alternatively, you can simply type shell:cache into the Internet Explorer Address Bar or the Start » Run prompt. Doing this will open a Windows Explorer window to the C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files folder.
It is important to understand that what you see above is not exactly what is stored on disk—alert readers will observe that Explorer is showing columns, like Internet Address and Expires, that are not typically seen for other folders.
This is accomplished through the magic of a Shell Namespace Extension. As explained on MSDN:With a namespace extension, you can take any body of data and have Windows Explorer present it to the user as a virtual folder. When a user browses into this folder, your data is presented as a tree-structured hierarchy of folders and files, much like the rest of the Shell namespace.
This folder is mapped to the Namespace Extension using the desktop.ini file within the folder; it contains the following text:
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[.ShellClassInfo]
UICLSID={7BD29E00-76C1-11CF-9DD0-00A0C9034933} |