For the purposes of maintaining privacy, sometimes deletion of one’s history is necessary. The computer keeps track of many things that you do on it which you may not want others to see, including which websites you have visited or which words you have searched. Some web browsers like Mozilla Firefox offer more online privacy, while others, particularly Internet Explorer leave traces of evidence on the hard disc. There exists several software applications like Mil Shield and others which help users delete their Internet histories. But whenever possible, a user may try to manually delete the history by following these simple steps.
Deleting History for Internet Explorer
Internet explorer keeps track of the websites visited by a user in the address bar, and a stranger can access this information by typing a URL and the address bar will show by a drop down box, a list of the various URL’s visited in a session. To keep the URL’s that you have visited private, you will need to do the following;
1. Select “Tools”;
2. Then, select “Internet Options”;
3. Click on the “Clear history” button;
4. Save the changes by clicking “Yes” option.
To prevent others from seeing what you have been searching on the Internet, you will need to delete the Auto complete which stores the list of words that you type on the search engine and sometime helps in quick searches by suggesting keyword matches. To do this (For Internet Explorer 7.0), the following steps can be taken.
1. Select “Tools”.
2. Select “Internet Options”.
3. Access the “General” tab.
4. On the “Browsing History” option, select “Delete “button.
5. Click “Delete Forms” on the “Delete Browsing History” window and affirm by clicking “Yes”.
6. Click on the “Close” button and then finish the process by clicking “OK’.
For those that are using Internet Explorer 5.x/6.x may use the following steps;
1. Go to “Tools”
2. Choose “Internet Options”
3. Access the “Content Tab”.
4. Press the “Auto complete” button.
5. Delete history by clicking on the “Clear forms” button.
6. Save changes by clicking “OK”.
The process is largely similar when you are also seeking to delete cookies, or both versions of the Internet Explorers, though the words ”Delete Cookies” replaces “Delete Forms” and “Clear Forms” from the above scenario, respectively.
Delete History for Firefox
If you use Firefox as your default browser, you can delete history by taking the following steps.
1. Select “Tools” option.
2. Select “Options”.
3. Go to “Privacy”.
4. Click “Clear Now” in the private area.
5. On the “Clear Private Data” option, Check “Browsing history” and then click “Clear Private Data Now”.
6. Finish the process by clicking OK.
In additional to these measures, you can minimize the possibilities of someone seeing your private data by taking some measures like uninstalling any third party toolbars, like Google Toolbar which keep their own histories and can be easily accessed. Using Firefox in itself is a way of disguising your footprints on the World Wide Web.
For more information on deleting Internet history read:
- Delete Internet History
- Delete Internet History
- Delete Internet History
- Delete Internet History
- Delete Internet History
