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How can I prevent Firefox profiles from becoming large and taking up space on the C drive for each user?

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  • Last reply by nukeit108

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I have many users logged into a Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Server (Terminal Server) and all of them use Firefox. Each one of their profiles get very large due to their Firefox profiles.

Seems that all the space being taken up by the cache folder. (C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\Profile.default\Cache)

Is there a way to enforce a policy within the program to clear the cache for each user either each time the browser is closed or when the user logs off?

I have many users logged into a Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Server (Terminal Server) and all of them use Firefox. Each one of their profiles get very large due to their Firefox profiles. Seems that all the space being taken up by the cache folder. (C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\Profile.default\Cache) Is there a way to enforce a policy within the program to clear the cache for each user either each time the browser is closed or when the user logs off?

Chosen solution

hello nukeit108, you can set the preference browser.cache.disk.enable to false, then no cache files will be written onto the disk (doesn't affect cached entries in RAM).

please also refer to http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locking_preferences

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Chosen Solution

hello nukeit108, you can set the preference browser.cache.disk.enable to false, then no cache files will be written onto the disk (doesn't affect cached entries in RAM).

please also refer to http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locking_preferences

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You can use Clear History when Firefox closes to clear the cache and set a fixed maximum for the disk cache to prevent the cache from getting to large.

Some prefs that you can consider to lock:

  • Tools > Options > Privacy : History: [X] Clear history when Firefox closes > Settings
  • privacy.clearOnShutdown.cache
  • privacy.sanitize.sanitizeOnShutdown
  • Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Cached Web Content
  • browser.cache.disk.smart_size.enabled
  • browser.cache.disk.capacity
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This helps for the user I am logged in as, but not all users that using Firefox on the computer. Is there a way it can be configured for all users?

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when you lock the preferences with the mozilla.cfg file in the firefox program folder as it's described in the mozillazine kb article above, it should apply for all users...

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The article was perfect. Creating the mozilla.cfg file allowed me to specify the preference for all users.

Thank you!!!