The Download Cache, or downloaded files cache, is a component of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

.NET Framework The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...

that is similar to the

Global Assembly Cache The Global Assembly Cache (GAC) is a machine-wide CLI assembly cache for the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) in Microsoft's .NET Framework. The approach of having a specially controlled central repository addresses the flaws in the shared libr ...

except that it caches assemblies that have been downloaded from the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...

. Q. Assemblies are downloaded from the Internet when a specific managed

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ai ...

is requested using the <object> tag in a web page. For example, the following

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...

will cause

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...

to download MyAssembly.dll to the Download Cache and will subsequently

instantiate Instantiation or instance may refer to: Philosophy * A modern concept similar to ''participation'' in classical Platonism; see the Theory of Forms * The instantiation principle, the idea that in order for a property to exist, it must be had b ...

MyControl on the page that contains it. ;<object id="myControlId" classid="http://MyServer/MyVirtualFolder/MyAssembly.dll#MyNamespace.MyControl"> ; <param name="MyProperty" value="SomeStringValue" /> ;</object>

Usage

Like the GAC, the Download Cache can be accessed with gacutil.exe.Global Assembly Cache Tool (Gacutil.exe)
/ref> One can list the contents of the Download Cache using the command:

gacutil.exe /ldl

One can delete the contents of the Download Cache using the command:

gacutil.exe /cdl

References

{{.NET .NET terminology