ie8 not refreshing pages

I am having rather severe problems where my IE8 isnt refreshing web pages, no
matter whether I try and manually refresh. Even if I clean out temporary
internet files and set to always download a new page it is not refreshing
certain web sites. I am running this on Windows Server 2008 R2. I think I
should try and reinstall it, but theres no way to do that on this operating
system.

IE Tools | Internet Options | General | Browsing history | Settings | Check
for newer versions of stored webpages: Is "Every time I visit the webpage"
selected?

Neal Stoughton wrote:
> I am having rather severe problems where my IE8 isnt refreshing web pages,
> no matter whether I try and manually refresh. Even if I clean out
> temporary
> internet files and set to always download a new page it is not refreshing
> certain web sites. I am running this on Windows Server 2008 R2. I think
> I
> should try and reinstall it, but theres no way to do that on this
> operating
> system.

Sorry to butt in on this thread but which of the options is the most
effective?

Every time I visit the webpage
Every time I start Internet Explorer
Automatically

On the face of it "Automatically" would cover all bases, so what is the
difference/advantage of selecting "Every time I visit the webpage"?

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" <> wrote in message
news:...
> IE Tools | Internet Options | General | Browsing history | Settings |
> Check for newer versions of stored webpages: Is "Every time I visit the
> webpage" selected?
>
> Neal Stoughton wrote:
>> I am having rather severe problems where my IE8 isnt refreshing web
>> pages,
>> no matter whether I try and manually refresh. Even if I clean out
>> temporary
>> internet files and set to always download a new page it is not refreshing
>> certain web sites. I am running this on Windows Server 2008 R2. I think
>> I
>> should try and reinstall it, but theres no way to do that on this
>> operating
>> system.
>

Found this:

"How Internet Explorer cache settings affect your web browsing
The more files you can load from your hard disk, the faster your browsing
speed but these pages might have changed since being stored on your
computer. Internet Explorer provides an easy way to set how often you want
Internet Explorer checks for updated content."

"Update cache settings in Internet Explorer
Every visit to the page
When you return to a page you viewed previously, Internet Explorer should
check to see whether the page changed since you last viewed it. If the page
has changed, Internet Explorer displays the new page and stores it in the
Temporary Internet Files. Note: selecting this option can slow down web
browsing.
Every time you start Internet Explorer
When you view a web page that you have visited before in the same Internet
Explorer session, Internet Explorer uses cached temporary Internet files
instead of downloading the page.
Automatically
If you select this setting, Internet Explorer checks for new content only
when you return to a page that you viewed in an earlier session of Internet
Explorer or on an earlier day. Over time, if Internet Explorer determines
that images on the page are changing infrequently, it checks for newer
images even less frequently."

It would seem that the first option is the only one that makes sure you have
the latest page, albeit that it may slow down browsing slightly.


"Smirnoff" <> wrote in message
news:#...
> Sorry to butt in on this thread but which of the options is the most
> effective?
>
> Every time I visit the webpage
> Every time I start Internet Explorer
> Automatically
>
> On the face of it "Automatically" would cover all bases, so what is the
> difference/advantage of selecting "Every time I visit the webpage"?
>
> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> IE Tools | Internet Options | General | Browsing history | Settings |
>> Check for newer versions of stored webpages: Is "Every time I visit the
>> webpage" selected?
>>
>> Neal Stoughton wrote:
>>> I am having rather severe problems where my IE8 isnt refreshing web
>>> pages,
>>> no matter whether I try and manually refresh. Even if I clean out
>>> temporary
>>> internet files and set to always download a new page it is not
>>> refreshing
>>> certain web sites. I am running this on Windows Server 2008 R2. I
>>> think I
>>> should try and reinstall it, but theres no way to do that on this
>>> operating
>>> system.
>>
>
>
>

"Smirnoff" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> Sorry to butt in on this thread but which of the options is the most
> effective?
>
> Every time I visit the webpage
> Every time I start Internet Explorer
> Automatically
>
> On the face of it "Automatically" would cover all bases, so what is the
> difference/advantage of selecting "Every time I visit the webpage"?


Every Visit forces a refresh no matter what.

Every Start only looks upon Start up, and Automatically allows some decision
making on the part of IE. Every Visit is a bit slower because you have to
wait for the new page instead of loading a cached page that you already have
stored locally.

"Smirnoff" <> wrote in message
news:OR%...
> Found this:
>
> "How Internet Explorer cache settings affect your web browsing
> The more files you can load from your hard disk, the faster your browsing
> speed but these pages might have changed since being stored on your
> computer. Internet Explorer provides an easy way to set how often you want
> Internet Explorer checks for updated content."
>
> "Update cache settings in Internet Explorer
> Every visit to the page
> When you return to a page you viewed previously, Internet Explorer should
> check to see whether the page changed since you last viewed it. If the
> page has changed, Internet Explorer displays the new page and stores it in
> the Temporary Internet Files. Note: selecting this option can slow down
> web browsing.
> Every time you start Internet Explorer
> When you view a web page that you have visited before in the same Internet
> Explorer session, Internet Explorer uses cached temporary Internet files
> instead of downloading the page.
> Automatically
> If you select this setting, Internet Explorer checks for new content only
> when you return to a page that you viewed in an earlier session of
> Internet Explorer or on an earlier day. Over time, if Internet Explorer
> determines that images on the page are changing infrequently, it checks
> for newer images even less frequently."
>
> It would seem that the first option is the only one that makes sure you
> have the latest page, albeit that it may slow down browsing slightly.
>


Exactly.

"Neal Stoughton" <> wrote in message
news:8F469734-D883-4E40-8D44-...
>I am having rather severe problems where my IE8 isnt refreshing web pages,
>no
> matter whether I try and manually refresh. Even if I clean out temporary
> internet files and set to always download a new page it is not refreshing
> certain web sites. I am running this on Windows Server 2008 R2. I think
> I
> should try and reinstall it, but theres no way to do that on this
> operating
> system.


How do you know that IE8 is not refreshing, or that the page itself is
static?

If the page has not changed (it is static) then your attempts to refresh are
not going to give a different experience than you are already getting, so
you would not know that the refresh failed. Refreshing a static page by
definition would not change the page.

If you know beyond any doubt that the page you are refreshing is changing
(dynamic) between refreshes, then the refreshed data is not coming to you,
this would indicate a problem with the site failing to send the new page,
not with IE failing to display it.

Your problem is not IE, it's the page you are trying to view. Visit your
favorite search site, Yahoo, Google News, MSN, and so on. If the home page
of these sites has a timestamp, then you can wait a minute or two and hit
F5, and see if th etime stamp changes, or if you nave selected the Every
Visit option (TOOLS>OPTIONS>GENERAL TAB, BROWSING HISTORY SETTINGS), then
you can navigate to anothe rpage within the same instance of IE and in the
same tab, then come back and see if the timestamp is changed.

If you load a page with a timestamp, then open a new page in a different tab
and navigate somewhere, then return to the previous tab, that original page
will be displayed WITHOUT refreshing. You have to move away from a page in
the same tab and then come back to it for the refresh to take place. Moving
from tab to tab, then back again does not invoke a new loading of the page,
so there is no refresh.

That's a fairly outdated, late 20th Century, dial-up era reference.
(Remember "Internet Accelerators"?) Back then, it was advisable to set your
TIF cache (AKA "disk space to use") on the high-end to speed up browsing.
Those with broadband connections will find a cache setting between 50MB and
100MB more than sufficient and choosing the "Every time I visit the page"
setting ideal.

BTW, the source of that quote has its own agenda:
http://www.clear-cache-cleaner.com/. You do NOT need any sort of "cache
cleaner."


Smirnoff wrote:
> Found this:
>
> "How Internet Explorer cache settings affect your web browsing
> The more files you can load from your hard disk, the faster your browsing
> speed but these pages might have changed since being stored on your
> computer. Internet Explorer provides an easy way to set how often you want
> Internet Explorer checks for updated content."
>
> "Update cache settings in Internet Explorer
> Every visit to the page
> When you return to a page you viewed previously, Internet Explorer should
> check to see whether the page changed since you last viewed it. If the
> page
> has changed, Internet Explorer displays the new page and stores it in the
> Temporary Internet Files. Note: selecting this option can slow down web
> browsing.
> Every time you start Internet Explorer
> When you view a web page that you have visited before in the same Internet
> Explorer session, Internet Explorer uses cached temporary Internet files
> instead of downloading the page.
> Automatically
> If you select this setting, Internet Explorer checks for new content only
> when you return to a page that you viewed in an earlier session of
> Internet
> Explorer or on an earlier day. Over time, if Internet Explorer determines
> that images on the page are changing infrequently, it checks for newer
> images even less frequently."
>
> It would seem that the first option is the only one that makes sure you
> have
> the latest page, albeit that it may slow down browsing slightly.
>
>
> "Smirnoff" <> wrote in message
> news:#...
>> Sorry to butt in on this thread but which of the options is the most
>> effective?
>>
>> Every time I visit the webpage
>> Every time I start Internet Explorer
>> Automatically
>>
>> On the face of it "Automatically" would cover all bases, so what is the
>> difference/advantage of selecting "Every time I visit the webpage"?
>>
>> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> IE Tools | Internet Options | General | Browsing history | Settings |
>>> Check for newer versions of stored webpages: Is "Every time I visit the
>>> webpage" selected?
>>>
>>> Neal Stoughton wrote:
>>>> I am having rather severe problems where my IE8 isnt refreshing web
>>>> pages,
>>>> no matter whether I try and manually refresh. Even if I clean out
>>>> temporary
>>>> internet files and set to always download a new page it is not
>>>> refreshing
>>>> certain web sites. I am running this on Windows Server 2008 R2. I
>>>> think I
>>>> should try and reinstall it, but theres no way to do that on this
>>>> operating
>>>> system.

"Jeff Strickland" <> wrote in message news:hf64so$f8f$...

> Every Visit forces a refresh no matter what.


Wrong (in general). Use Fiddler2 to see that. All any of those options do
is cache-checking using their respective frequency. Only if a cached-item
is stale will it need to be refreshed. Cache-checking is such a low bandwidth
action that it makes little sense not to use Every Visit (at least with a high-speed
connection as PA Bear indicated).


>
> Every Start only looks upon Start up, and Automatically allows some decision
> making on the part of IE. Every Visit is a bit slower because you have to
> wait for the new page instead of loading a cached page that you already have
> stored locally.


That's (sort of) true (e.g. there is network delay waiting for the confirmations)
but the tradeoff is in usability that otherwise forces the user to press F5
(at least) if there is uncertainty about the currency of page's contents,
which then does a forced cache-check on every item associated with
the page anyway.


FYI

Robert Aldwinckle
---

"Robert Aldwinckle" <> wrote in message
news:e4xUwT%...
>
> "Jeff Strickland" <> wrote in message
> news:hf64so$f8f$...
>
>> Every Visit forces a refresh no matter what.
>
>
> Wrong (in general). Use Fiddler2 to see that. All any of those options
> do
> is cache-checking using their respective frequency. Only if a
> cached-item
> is stale will it need to be refreshed. Cache-checking is such a low
> bandwidth
> action that it makes little sense not to use Every Visit (at least with a
> high-speed
> connection as PA Bear indicated).
>

If the page is static, you would not know if it was fresh or cached because
by definition it's still the same as the last time you were there. If the
page is dynamic, then the return will be updated on every visit.

The report by the OP is that the pages are not updating, but if the page was
static there would be no way to tell, and no reason to think it was not
fresh because since it didn't change it would be as fresh now as it was an
hour ago, and the OP would not have reported a "problem". He would not know
or care that the page was loaded from Cache.

If the page is changing -- it's dynamic -- then the OP would see that the
new page was not being displayed, but instead was being loaded from Cache
instead of being refreshed. If he changes the setting to load the page on
Every Visit, he'll get the latest information whether its a fresh load or
one from cache. His problem is solved and whether the page is the same and
comes from cache, or the page is new and fresh is of no consequence.

The distinction you are pointing out is one that is of no importance in the
context of the discussion.

If the question involved a QoS issue, then we would be approaching the point
where the distinction is important.