Clearing IE Cache Programmatically vs InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess

Question

I have an application hosting the webbrowser control which clears the cache (regularly) using the code example provided my microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/262110

I am noticing however that after sometime the cache get corrupted or not working properly (requests that should be out of cache - are called over and over again.

When I run the following command, the application starts running normally. system('RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 8')

Are the two the same, or is the code lacking something?

Answer 1

In IE9 I ran InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 8 and it did not remove a thing so looks like MS has moved the goal posts again.

Shown below is some very nice code I picked up that should work in IE7 but if you want code that does the trick on win7 and IE8/9 then click my name

public static class ClearMyTracks {
 /*
  * To clear IE temporary Internet files – ClearMyTracksByProcess 8
  * To clear IE browsing cookies – ClearMyTracksByProcess 2
  * To clear IE browsing history – ClearMyTracksByProcess 193 (ALSO deletes add on history)
  * To clear IE form data- ClearMyTracksByProcess 16
  * To clear IE remembered passwords for filling web login forms-ClearMyTracksByProcess 32
  * To clear or delete all IE browsing history – all of above!- ClearMyTracksByProcess 255
  * To clear IE Tracking- ClearMyTracksByProcess 2048
  * Preserve Favourites use 8192
  * To clear IE Downloaded Files- ClearMyTracksByProcess 16384 
  * http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/clear-ie7-browsing-history-from-the-command-line/
  */

public enum ClearFlags {
  DeleteCookies = 2, 
  DeleteHistoryFiles = 8, 
  DeleteFormData = 16, 
  DeletePasswords = 32,
  DeleteHistory = 193, 
  DeleteALLHistory = 255, 
  DeleteTrackingInfo = 2048,
  PreserveFavourites = 8192, 
  DeleteDownloadHistory = 16384, 
  DeleteEverything = 22783
 };

public static void IEClearHistory(bool PreserveFavs, bool TempFiles, bool Cookies, bool History, bool form, bool passwords, bool downloads) {
  uint mask = 0;

  if (PreserveFavs)
    mask |= (uint)ClearFlags.PreserveFavourites;

  if (TempFiles)
    mask |= (uint)ClearFlags.DeleteHistoryFiles;

  if (Cookies)
    mask |= (uint)ClearFlags.DeleteCookies;

  if (History)
    mask |= (uint)ClearFlags.DeleteHistory;

  if (form)
    mask |= (uint)ClearFlags.DeleteFormData;

  if (passwords)
    mask |= (uint)ClearFlags.DeletePasswords;

  if (downloads)
    mask |= (uint)ClearFlags.DeleteDownloadHistory;

  if (mask != 0)
    System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("rundll32.exe", "InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess " + mask.ToString());
}