Microsoft browsers, including Internet Explorer 10+ and the legacy version of Microsoft Edge (EdgeHTML), store a significant portion of their browsing records in an Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) database. This database file, typically named WebCacheV01.dat, acts as a centralized container for web cache, cookies, and browsing history. Forensic investigators target this file to reconstruct a user's web activity. While the newer Chromium-based Edge uses SQLite for some artifacts (like Chrome), the ESE database is a foundational and well-documented location for Microsoft browser forensic analysis.

B. Virtual Memory: This contains transient data swapped from RAM. While it might hold fragments of browsing data, it is not the primary, persistent storage location for these records.

C. Sparse files: This is a file-system attribute that allows for efficient storage of files with empty sections; it is not a database format or a specific location for browser artifacts.

D. Slack Space: This is the unused space within a disk cluster. It may contain remnants of deleted data but is not the structured location where the browser actively stores its records.

1. Jang, Y., Lee, S., & Lee, S. (2016). Forensic analysis of the Microsoft Edge browser. Digital Investigation, 17, 34-41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diin.2016.04.004. (In the abstract and Section 3, the paper explicitly states, "The web cache and cookies of the Edge browser are stored in the ESE database file, WebCacheV01.dat.")

2. Nordbø, O. J. (2019). Forensic Analysis of Microsoft Windows 10 Web Browsers [Master's thesis, University of Oslo]. DUO Research Archive. (Page 29, Section 4.2.2 details that legacy Microsoft Edge stores cache, cookies, and downloaded files history within the WebCacheV01.dat ESE database.)

3. Casey, E. (2011). Digital Evidence and Computer Crime: Forensic Science, Computers, and the Internet (3rd ed.). Academic Press. (Chapter 14, "Network Forensics," discusses browser forensics, noting that Internet Explorer and related Microsoft technologies utilize database structures like ESE for storing user activity artifacts.)