CacheSentry Pro is a new version of the popular Internet Explorer cache manager. It has all of the functionality of the original CacheSentry, and now includes several powerful new features most important of which is the ability to customize the cache management strategies of the program. It also includes a cache backup tool so the contents of the cache can be archived to a single large file that can be restored at a later time. Additionally, the cache can be completely deleted (including the index.dat file) allowing you to start with a fresh cache. (Which can then be restored from a backup giving you an optimized index.dat file.) The final new major feature is the ability of this utility to turn on and off the global offline state, so you no longer have to open IE or Outlook Express to switch between online and offline mode.

CONTENTS

• Installation and Quick Start Guide
• Internet Explorer Issues CacheSentry Pro fixes
• The System Tray Notification icons
• The Main window
• The Activity page
• The Options page
• The Cache Size Settings page
• The Tools page
• The Information page
• Command line options
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
• Version History

INSTALLATION AND QUICK START GUIDE

Zip: If you download the .ZIP package, you can install it by simply unzipping the contents to a folder of your choice and running the program from there. You may optionally create shortcuts to the program if you don't want to go into the CacheSentry Pro folder to run the program every time you need it.

Installer: Note that you must have the Windows Installer 2.0 package installed on your system for this to work. (You can tell if you do not have the installer as double-clicking the installation file will cause Windows to ask which program to use to open the .msi file instead of doing the install. Also if you don't have version 2.0 it will give an error message telling you to download the latest version.) If you do not have the Windows Installer 2.0, you can download it from Microsoft at:

For Win 9x & ME: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=32831

For NT4 and 2000: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=32832

If you are using Windows XP or higher, you do not need to download the Windows Installer package as it is already built into that version of the OS.

After CacheSentry Pro is installed, there is one thing you must do first in order to have it function properly: You must set Internet Explorer's cache size to the maximum allowed, or to a size significantly larger than you will set in CacheSentry Pro's size settings window. The reason for doing this is to make sure Internet Explorer doesn't get a chance to make room in the cache on its own. Setting the cache to a large size will accomplish this, since CacheSentry Pro will manage the cache before it ever reaches the size set in IE.

Also, you should set up how you want to run CacheSentry Pro. If you used the installer, it will put a program icon in the Start Menu for you that you can use to run CacheSentry Pro from. Also, you can have it run at login or system startup automatically by enabling this feature from inside the CacheSentry Pro Options page. One easy way to start CacheSentry Pro manually is to create a shortcut to the program in the "Links" folder in the IE Favorites menu. To do this, start IE, then open the folder on your hard drive you have installed CacheSentry Pro into and ALT-drag (hold down the ALT key while dragging) the program icon to IE's "Links" toolbar. Then, whenever you want to start CacheSentry Pro, simply click the link! If CacheSentry Pro is already running, clicking on the link has the added benefit of bringing up the main window for you, so you don't have to have its icon sitting in the system tray if you want to keep your taskbar uncluttered.

The first time you start CacheSentry Pro, it will notify you that it could not find a set of managers to load. This is normal - it will automatically use a built-in factory default set and will save this set to disk when you exit the program. You can edit this factory default set to customize it to your own needs at any time.

It will also open the main window automatically so you can familiarize yourself with the various settings and displays. Here is a brief description of the various windows and tabbed pages available in CacheSentry Pro:

• The main window. This contains the buttons to run management cycles, exit the program, get help, and a tab control that contains several pages of other settings and tools.
• The activity page. This is the default page open when you start CacheSentry Pro. Here all actions performed during cache management cycles are logged to this window. You can also clear the log, save it, and set the log size.
• The options page. CacheSentry's global options are set here.
• The cache size settings. This is where you create and edit the cache managers that are run every time a cache management cycle is performed. You can also load and save different sets of cache managers from here, and also set the size to which the cache will grow before CacheSentry Pro considers it "full".
• The tools page. Here you will find the cache backup and restore feature, a button to completely clear the cache (including the index.dat file) and a tool to save a text file listing of the cache's contents.
• The information page. Miscellaneous information about your computer system and CacheSentry Pro is displayed here.

To begin using CacheSentry Pro, you do not need to do anything other than set IE's cache size as described above. The factory default set of managers will give better caching than IE and the maximum cache size setting is automatically calculated to the current size of all the content in the cache. You can go to the cache size settings page if you need to increase this value. If there are any old empty stray files or stray URLs or very old cookies, these will be deleted as soon as the initial cache management cycle runs after a few seconds. Any other files will not be deleted until the cache reaches the maximum size set in the above mentioned cache size setting. You can change this behavior by editing the settings for the cache managers.

Return to the Table of Contents/Main help page