Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Change location of temporary files

more options

I want to change the location of the temporary files corresponding to the web pages I visit. It seems to be called the cache.

Right now those files are saved in

   C:\Users\userid\AppData\Local\Temp\

but my C drive is a SSD and I don't want them to be there.

Note: In about:config, I created a string

   browser.cache.disk.parent_directory

and set its value to

   D:\Temp\Firefox_temp\

but to no avail: the temporary HTML pages are still created in C:\Users\userid\AppData\Local\Temp\.

I want to change the location of the temporary files corresponding to the web pages I visit. It seems to be called the cache. Right now those files are saved in C:\Users\''userid''\AppData\Local\Temp\ but my C drive is a SSD and I don't want them to be there. Note: In about:config, I created a string browser.cache.disk.parent_directory and set its value to D:\Temp\Firefox_temp\ but to no avail: the temporary HTML pages are still created in C:\Users\''userid''\AppData\Local\Temp\.

Chosen solution

To change the location of the System Temp folder, follow the steps given below.


1. Right click on Computer and click on Properties. In the resulting window with the basic information about your computer

2. Click on Advanced system settings on the left panel resulting in a dialog box click on the Advanced tab a

3. Click on the button near the bottom labeled Environment Variables.

4. You may see both TMP and TEMP listed in the section labeled User variables for (account). That's the common location; each different login account is assigned its own temporary location.

5. In the Variable value Edit box you may specify the path to the directory that Windows and many other programs will use for temporary files.


Be sure and repeat that process for both TMP and TEMP.

You'll need to restart any running programs for the new value to take effect. In fact, you'll need to restart Windows for it to begin using the new value for its own temporary files.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (2)

more options

Chosen Solution

To change the location of the System Temp folder, follow the steps given below.


1. Right click on Computer and click on Properties. In the resulting window with the basic information about your computer

2. Click on Advanced system settings on the left panel resulting in a dialog box click on the Advanced tab a

3. Click on the button near the bottom labeled Environment Variables.

4. You may see both TMP and TEMP listed in the section labeled User variables for (account). That's the common location; each different login account is assigned its own temporary location.

5. In the Variable value Edit box you may specify the path to the directory that Windows and many other programs will use for temporary files.


Be sure and repeat that process for both TMP and TEMP.

You'll need to restart any running programs for the new value to take effect. In fact, you'll need to restart Windows for it to begin using the new value for its own temporary files.

more options

Thanks a lot. It works.

I'm surprised that Firefox does not give more granular control. I have to change the TEMP not only for Firefox, but for every other application. In my case, it's perfectly what I want, though.