ASP.NET MVC how to disable automatic caching option?

HackedByChinese is missing the point. He mistook server cache with client cache. OutputCacheAttribute controls server cache (IIS http.sys cache), not browsers (clients) cache.

I give you a very small part of my codebase. Use it wisely.

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method | AttributeTargets.Class)]
public sealed class NoCacheAttribute : FilterAttribute, IResultFilter
{
    public void OnResultExecuting(ResultExecutingContext filterContext)
    {
    }

    public void OnResultExecuted(ResultExecutedContext filterContext)
    {
        var cache = filterContext.HttpContext.Response.Cache;
        cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);
        cache.SetRevalidation(HttpCacheRevalidation.ProxyCaches);
        cache.SetExpires(DateTime.Now.AddYears(-5));
        cache.AppendCacheExtension("private");
        cache.AppendCacheExtension("no-cache=Set-Cookie");
        cache.SetProxyMaxAge(TimeSpan.Zero);
    }
}

Usage:

/// will be applied to all actions in MyController
[NoCache]
public class MyController : Controller
{
    // ... 
}

Use it wisely as it really disables all client cache. The only cache not disabled is the "back button" browser cache. But is seems there is really no way to get around it. Maybe only by using javascript to detect it and force page or page zones refresh.

You can use the OutputCacheAttribute to control server and/or browser caching for specific actions or all actions in a controller.

Disable for all actions in a controller

[OutputCacheAttribute(VaryByParam = "*", Duration = 0, NoStore = true)] // will be applied to all actions in MyController, unless those actions override with their own decoration
public class MyController : Controller
{
  // ... 
}

Disable for a specific action:

public class MyController : Controller
{
    [OutputCacheAttribute(VaryByParam = "*", Duration = 0, NoStore = true)] // will disable caching for Index only
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
       return View();
    }
} 

If you want to apply a default caching strategy to all actions in all controllers, you can add a global action filter by editing your global.asax.cs and looking for the RegisterGlobalFilters method. This method is added in the default MVC application project template.

public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)
{
    filters.Add(new OutputCacheAttribute
                    {
                        VaryByParam = "*",
                        Duration = 0,
                        NoStore = true,
                    });
    // the rest of your global filters here
}

This will cause it to apply the OutputCacheAttribute specified above to every action, which will disable server and browser caching. You should still be able to override this no-cache by adding OutputCacheAttribute to specific actions and controllers.