14 DAY TRIAL // SWF files are actually flash movies. There is a lot to this format as movies of this kind are small enough to be published on the web. The trouble with these files is that some of them are damn funny and users would like to store them on the computer or later views.
Of course you can find it in the Internet Cache folder, but if you bothered to take a look in there, you surely understood the problem. There are hundreds of files stored, some of them having unpronounceable names. Finding the one you are interested in may take a while. It took me about two hours to find a really beautiful car commercial. That file was indeed worth the trouble. But how many times can you do this?
Fortunately, there are software developers that foresee such issues and provide the right tools for us. SWF Cache Viewer is exactly what it says and a little more. This little tool will sort all the files available and display only the SWF ones. From that moment on, the job is three quarters done. SWF Cache Viewer is a free software and you can use it with no strings attached.
Its interface is as simple as can be but don't let this affect your activities as you will soon realize that this aspect is of little interest when it comes to the flash video incarcerated in the Internet Cache folder. In the top left hand corner, there is the source bar. There are three types of sources you can select from: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and a folder on your computer.
As the application is able to play the flash movie stored on your computer, in the right upper part of the application window there is the space reserved for previewing the files. This way, you will know for certain which file you want to save. Finding it is an easy task and all you need to do is select the flash files in the left side and peruse them one by one. The preview window will show you the content.
In the lower part of the application, there are the options for managing the content in the cache folder and the search filters for fast finding the much desired file. Filters are limited to websites and date, but even so, the files are sorted and there are fewer files to search through. Date Filter has six options: today, yesterday, anytime, this month, exact date and time range. For the last two options, you will be opened a calendar to choose the exact date or define the time interval for sorting the files.
If you have a flash player installed on your computer, double clicking on the file will open it in an external window. The same result can be achieved by using the View button.
Once you have found the file you are looking for, you can choose to save it in a less chaotic folder on your computer. For faster extracting of the files from the Internet Cache folder, the user can define a saving folder first and then press Save button. This way, you do not have to select the directory every time you want to save a file.
The details on the SWF file are to be found under the preview window. These include the URL, creation/modification date and the size of the file. I must say that the information in this area is not too reliable as during our testing, the modification date was anterior to the one displayed for the creation of the file. Pretty weird.
The application integrates perfectly into the Internet Explorer toolbar and allows you to save flash movies from any web page to a user- defined folder. The only trouble is that this does not work all the time and during our testing, the program failed to save SWF files to the specified folder.
The Good
SWF Cache Viewer is a free application designed to save flash content from websites to a user specified location on the computer.
Easy to use and handle, it is equipped with filters to help you find what you want faster.
The Bad
It does not always work. It happened to save a flash movie from MetaCafe, but when I tried to save a specific movie, it failed.
The Truth
Try it because it is free, but there is no guarantee to its successful working.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
