May 26, 2005

• I just navigate to the directory, should be in.. gimme a sec.. documents and settings\your login\application data\mozilla\firefox\profiles\somethingsomething\cache Not sure if it varies depending on system or user.
• 'somethingsomething' is a dir with a weird string of characters, it probly different for you, but it's the only one there (in my case) I'm not sure how you use firefox' own commands to view it.
• I've never been able to open firefox cache files. So in my experience, if you want to download a quicktime movie you've got to find the URL in the webpage and paste that into the address bar.
• If you wanna save a movie file or flash or something, you have to figure out which is the right file by it's size, presumably, then rename it.
• This works in Mozilla, and I would guess it also works in Firefox, but I don't have Firefox installed just now, so I can't verify it. Type "about:cache" into the address bar and press enter. You'll see a high-level summary of the status of the RAM cache and disk cache, along with HTML links to follow to browse each in greater detail. The detailed listing of cache items is presented as a web page, so it's possible to search it with Ctrl-F, etc. Each item has a hyperlink associated with it, allowing you to click-to-view or right-click-save-as, etc. It's plain-looking, but functionally, it's pretty sweet.
• One other thing. Big media files like .mp3s and .movs that aren't embedded in a web page won't go into the cache. If you click on a link to watch a movie trailer, and Mozilla/Firefox asks you what to do with the file, and you say "just launch it," then the media file gets saved in the temp folder. Under Windows 2000 and Windows XP, the location of the temp folder depends on your login. Usually it's something like "C:\Documents And Settings\\Local Settings\Temp."
• Yes, about:cache works in firefox. Neat trick. Also, you can save a file from a page, even if it's embeded, by right clicking on the page and selecting View Page Info. One of the tabs at the top of the resulting dialogue box is called 'media' and has information on embeds and such.
• I think I've just taken my first step into a wider world... Thanks chaps, this all most interesting...
• Yes, thanks all, very helpful.
• Good suggestions, especially finding the temp folder, which is where a lot of files go if you don't right click and download it directly. Another trick that I have learned is that you can easily find many URLs for the embedded movies using the AdBlock Extension. Install it, then there should be tab that appears on basically all media that plays within the browser. Click it to get the blockable address of the 'offending' media file. Then simply copy the address (don't click the OK button unless you want to block the file!), paste to the address bar, then 'save page as', and voila... you have your file. There are a few websites that use a different method for embedding that doesn't give an address, but they are few and mostly large, well funded, tech savvy ones. Little easier than wading throught all the html. I save all kinds of flash and movie files this way.
• if you right click a page in firefox and choose View Page Info there's a tab named Media that lists all images, embedded movies, flash files etc. Find the file in the list and choose Save as...
• Oh: Quicktime preferences, under browser settings; check the box marked "save movies in disk cache" if you want to be able to keep copies of the movie locally. Very useful if you want to redistribute them, or watch them again without downloading the whole thing (think large movie trailer files and such).
• You are all gods. Ta.