Reference number: CH000510

How do I clear my Internet browser history?

Question:

How do I clear my Internet browser history?

Reasoning:

As you browse the Internet, each of the items you view are saved locally on your hard disk drive. This helps web pages you visit frequently load faster by loading the files from you hard disk drive instead of having to downloading the web page again. To conserve hard disk drive space or to help keep their Internet browsing private, users may find it necessary to delete their Internet History. 

Answer:

Microsoft Internet Explorer users

Viewing History

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.x users can view their history files by clicking the "Tools" menu, "Internet Options", clicking the "Settings" button under the Browsing history, and then clicking the "View Files" button.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x users can view their history files by clicking the "Tools" menu, "Internet Options", clicking the "Settings" button, and then clicking the "View Files" button.

Deleting History

• Microsoft Windows users running Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x and 7.x can delete their history files by clicking the "Tools" menu, "Internet Options", and clicking the "Delete Files" or "Delete" button. Users also have the option of automatically deleting files each time the close the browser window by clicking the "Advanced" tab and checking "Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed" under the "Security" section.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x users on an Apple Macintosh can delete the history by clicking the "Hard Drive" icon, "System",  "Preferences", "Explorer", and moving the history file into the trash.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.02 and lower users can delete their history by clicking the "View" menu, "Options", open the tab "Advanced", click the "Settings" tab, and click the "Empty Folder" button.

Mozilla Firefox users

Viewing History

Press Ctrl + H to open the left-side history bar.

or

Click History at the top of the window.

or

Users using earlier versions of Mozilla Firefox can also view their history by clicking "Go" and clicking "History".

Deleting History

Mozilla Firefox users can clear their history by clicking the "Tools" menu, "Options", clicking the "Piracy" button, and under "History" click the "Clear" or "Clear Now" button.

or

Press CTRL + Shift + DEL to open the Clear Data Window.

Netscape users

Viewing History

• Microsoft Windows users can view history by first opening Netscape and click the "Edit" menu, "Preferences", "History", and view the location where Netscape is storing your files. Next, open this folder within Explorer.

Deleting History

• Netscape users can delete their history files by clicking the "Edit" menu, "Preferences", "History", and click the "Clear History" button.

Opera users

Viewing History

Users can view their history files by opening the "cache" folder within their opera folder. Microsoft Windows users can often find this within "C:\Program files\Opera\". If you're unable to locate the cache within this directory try opening the  "C:\Documents and Settings\**HOPE**\Application Data\Opera\Opera\profile" folder, where **HOPE** is the name of the username you use to log into Windows.

Deleting History

Opera users can delete their history by clicking the "File" menu, "Preferences", "History", and click "Empty now" button. In addition, users can check "Empty on exit" if they wish for this task to occur each time they exit the browser.

Additional information:

• Additional information about cache can be found on our cache dictionary definition.