Posted: 11/23/2013 1:44:42 PM EDT
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I just wrote this up for my brother, so I figured I'd dump it here for others to use too. This is Windows 7 based. It assumes you've got 8+ gigabytes of RAM, if you have less, change the size of the RAMDISK to 1024 megabytes instead of 2048.
WHY? A. Speed -- faster than an SSD system file. B. SSD protection -- if you're an SSD user, the browser cache files hammer the shit out of your device with small writes, and with write multiplication, these writes have a larger effect on your device life than a lot of other computing activity. C. Privacy -- when you reboot, the cache history is gone. ================================= OK, here's what you do. Go download the "LITE" (free) version of RAMDISK software from this page: http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk Install it. You might have to load .NET 4 if its not on your system already. Run the configuration for RAMDISK. Specify a 2048 megabyte RAMDISK, pick FAT32, and start the Ramdisk. Goto the "Options" and tell it not to create a backup file when saving the RAMDISL, tell it to clear RAMDISK memory on exit, and UNCHECK the line about not starting Ramdisk when Windows starts. Save settings and close the RAMDisk config software. (We'll be back later to mess with it some more). Next to to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Storage, Disk Management and change the RAMDISK drive letter to something way down the line. (how about "R" for Ramdisk). OK, now go to the RamDisk itself and create these directories: ChromeCache FirefoxCache IECache Finally, you have to get each browser to put its stuff where you want it, and with Chrome you have to reset your privacy options and defaults etc., before we save the base RamDisk image. CHROME: ======= First export your Chrome bookmarks. Remember where you put them. Find your shortcut for Chrome. If its pined, then right click on the pinned icon, then look at the Google Chrome entry and right click on that. Now, to the "target" portion, add TWO dash characters, immediately followed by: user-data-dir=R:\ChromeCache (e.g., [path,etc. under target for Google Chrome]" --user-data-dir=R:\ChromeCache (That example assumes you put he Ramdisk on drive R) Now run Chrome from that shortcut. While it's running, surf to your "ChromeCache" directory on the RamDisk and look at all the crap that should have appeared there. Once you confirm that worked, -- Import your bookmarks. -- Set your homepage -- Go do all your settings, etc. so chrome is set up exactly like you want it. -- close all the pages except for settings, go to history, and clear the entire history, everything, from the beginning of time. Close Chrome. FIREFOX: ======= Open the Browser. type About:Config in the address bar. Tell it you're cool with the risk when it asks. Right click and ask for a new STRING Call the string: browser.cache.disk.parent_directory It will then ask you for the value for this string. Put R:\FirefoxCache (again assuming you used Drive R) Clear history, etc. IE11 ==== Run IE. Go to Internet Options. Under General, click the "Settings" button next to Browsing History. Tell it to move the folder. Put in R:\IECache (again assuming Drive "R"). Let it log you out of windows. Log back in. FINAL STEPS: =========== Open up the RAMDISK config utility again. Under FILE, pick Save Disk Image Now. Put the image on your FASTEST hard drive. (An SSD is fine). If you save it to a drive that is NTFS formatted, it will automatically compress it so that (a) it will take virtually no space (its empty after all) and (b) it will load fast, since the compressed drive is loaded into memory and then uncompressed. On the LOAD/SAVE tab, tell it to Load Disk Image at startup. Give it the location of the Image you just saved. That's it. NOTE: In Chrome, you will no longer have "persistent" bookmarks. Any bookmarks you save after this process will be "lost" unless you resave the Ramdisk Image. To me this is not a big deal. To you it may be a game changa. If you can't handle losing the bookmarks, then change the tag (the part with the "two dashes") you add to the Chrome shortcut target from "--user-data-dir" to "--disk-cache-dir" -- this will keep bookmarks and HISTORY on your hard disk, and limit just the web page code and images cache to your ramdisk. Here's my Windows 7 System. My SYSTEM (C) and DATA (D) drives are RAID5 volumes using the Intel fakeraid on my motherboard. The R drive is my ramdisk and the SWAP (S) drive is a little 32G SSD I had laying around -- it has the page file and all the "TEMP / TMP" directory stuff. 
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Quoted:
Why? My brother asked for it because his kids surf the shit out of the internet and he doesn't want to have all the write activity of the browser cache on his SSD. Beyond that, there's speed, and there's privacy. But I already said that. You'd have had to read more than the title before dropping the pithy "WHY" response to have seen that though. 
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I could see this being useful in some circumstances but for the majority of home users losing website logins, browser history, and favorites every time the computer is restarted is a major showstopper. I forget that most people actually give zero shits about security and privacy. If you're in that camp, just check the box on the RAMDISK configuration software to tell it to save the disk image on shutdown. Boom, total persistence -- and yet still fast browsing and not a bunch of unnecessary write activity on your system SSD. |
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Quoted: My brother asked for it because his kids surf the shit out of the internet and he doesn't want to have all the write activity of the browser cache on his SSD. Beyond that, there's speed, and there's privacy. But I already said that. You'd have had to read more than the title before dropping the pithy "WHY" response to have seen that though. Quoted: Quoted: Why? My brother asked for it because his kids surf the shit out of the internet and he doesn't want to have all the write activity of the browser cache on his SSD. Beyond that, there's speed, and there's privacy. But I already said that. You'd have had to read more than the title before dropping the pithy "WHY" response to have seen that though. That would be the only reason for me. All of my history/cookies/whatever is gone when i close the browser and cleaned up every night by CCleaner. |
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That would be the only reason for me. All of my history/cookies/whatever is gone when i close the browser and cleaned up every night by CCleaner. Its what I used to do (CCleaner on a schedule). But two things: CCLEANERby default is just deleting; (not wiping) whereas when the ram is gone, its gone. Yeah, the main reason I had to write it all up was an SSD and write multiplication. My brother downloaded the SSD statistics or health monitor or whatever, and freaked out. Turns out that an afternoon Google Chrome browsing that generates a cache taking up 800 megabytes of disk space generates over 3 gigabytes of write activity to the SSD. |