I'm just curious, how come the files I tried to download are not save directly to the locations I specified, instead, the files are saved to the temp directory first, then move to the locations I specified after the downloads are finished. It doesn't make sense for the browser to save the files to the temp directory first.

i don't know what the reasoning is, but it's not all that bad a thing to do, and in fact many applications work that way... maybe it's to keep you from trying to access the file before it's all there?

But it can be a *really* bad thing if you're very low on disk space on the drive where your temp folder is defined. Imagine the following scenario (which happened to me): You have 1.5mb free on your c:\ drive, your temp dir is c:\temp, you want to download a 5mb file on your d:\ drive which has 15mb free... but you can't download this file as you must have at least enough space on your temp dir to first save the downloaded file there.

Solution? Easy, just use wget for all your downloading pleasures. ;-)

i'm fond of wget myself... i've just been playing with a macro that calls a batch file that downloads a clicked-on image to my temp folder with wget, then opens it with xnview... the only reason to do this is because i like to keep images off most of the time, and using 'view image' in that mode just shows you a new page with a placeholder... it works nicely.

but as far as the no-room-in-the-temp-folder problem goes, that just sounds like a bad situation all around, since i know many compression utilities, for instance, need some space there... anyway, maybe they can make the download behavior an option...

You're missing the point of the temp dir.

It's supposed to be used for all files that are incomplete. It provides a standard system for temporary files and can be moved by the user or os when needed.

Exactly so. If you have the option, put your temp on the drive with the most space. The Windows swap file can be moved too, which is a good thing since it varies in size a lot too.
My goodness, Zeiram, you make me want to send you one of my spare drives.

Some background information: IE, Netscape 4.x, and Mozilla save files to the cache so they can resume them later if you cancel the download (if resuming is possible). Downloads are put in the cache so you donÂ’t try to access the file and possibly muck them up, destroying any further chance of resuming.

Ok, I know that it's possible to move the swap-file to another location.

But, how can I inform my OS that it should use a temp-dir at another drive?
My problem is also drive-space on the c: partition.
If I want to download a file thats bigger than 150 MB I have to shut off the swap-file first completely (+reboot), cause I fixed it at ~500 MB for better Game-Performance.
It's annoying.......
A downloadmanager could be a solution, ok, but I not really want to install one (most of them contains spyware I guess).

Anyone got an idea how to tell win that it should use a different temp-folder?

Hmmm, only time I ever had a C:\ space problem was for a few weeks last fall... You'll have to put it in your Config.sys, or change it if it's there already -
SET TEMP=X:\TEMP
- you use whatever your drive letter is for X -
and search the registry for all references to temp files and change the drive letter.
Back up everything first, of course. I don't know what version of Windwoes you have, so it might not be quite so... I'm a 98-er.
One should be very strict about not letting all programs install in default directories, i.e. C:\Program Files\ThisProg. Most of them will accept redirection, and it keeps the population under control.

try to put these two lines into your autoexec.bat:
@set temp=d:\temp
@set tmp=d:\temp

I have to agree with the author of the posting. It annoys me too sometimes that it is saved to temp first.

Especially when the temp dir is on a different drive than the download drive. Moving a big file after downloading can take some time. I want to open it fast when it's finished downloading. :-)

Thx for your description (Arual & Vincent).
I'm gonna try it out. Yesterday I''ve tried changing the temp dir with xteq-xsetup.
It works, but i makes no difference......while downloading big files I also get an out-of-memory-message on the c: partition ;O(
Now, for the moment, I'm using the stardownloader with the plugin I found in the resources section, which I installed after that try. It works very well.
But I want to find out if your solution is the better way.

As seen in the previous discussion this doesn't seem to be a big problem. BUT if you're using NTFS and have set the security it can be VERY annoying! As a sysadmin I'm often downloading files to a public area on my own system or directly down on a server. If the temp-catalog and destination-catalog Windows moves the file without resetting the files security. (If the destination is on another drive the file is first copied wich results in new security, this is how NT always has worked).
Conclusion: Storing the file in a temp-catalog and then letting the system move it isn't a god idea in win32!

//Rolf
(note: Mozilla does the same.)