Back Button Causes a GET Request Instead of Using the Cache

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This article was previously published under Q327584

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SYMPTOMS

When you click the Back button in Microsoft Internet Explorer or in Windows Internet Explorer to view a previously-loaded ASP page, network activity may occur. This symptom may occur although you are using the default cache settings. This symptom is not consistent with the behavior that is described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

263070 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/263070/EN-US/ ) How Internet Explorer Cache Settings Affect Web Browsing

Partial text from Q263070:

If you select this setting ("Check for newer versions of stored pages" set to "Automatically"), 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.

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CAUSE

This problem may occur if the page you are viewing hosts either:

An ATL DHTML control.
The WebBrowser control. This is the ATL DHTML control that hosts the WebBrowser control.

When the WebBrowser control is initialized, the "Session Start Time" is re-initialized to the current time. When you click the Back button, Internet Explorer tries to retrieve the previous page from the cache. Although the previous page is in the cache, it is treated as an expired page because the time stamp for the cached entry is older than the "Session Start Time".

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WORKAROUND

To work around this problem and prevent a reload of the ASP page, use the "response.expires" method.

IMPORTANT: After you use this workaround, the ASP page is read from the cache until it has expired.

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MORE INFORMATION

Avoid hosting the WebBrowser control in Internet Explorer because this is not a supported use of this control. Internet Explorer displays HTML correctly without hosting the WebBrowser control.

For additional information about hosting the WebBrowser control, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

237685 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/237685/EN-US/ ) PRB: Hosting a WebBrowser Control Inside ActiveX Document or ActiveX Control to be Hosted in Internet Explorer

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