Creatures of habit. We go to the same restaurants, the same doctor, ditto our auto mechanic. We sleep on the same side of the bed every night, even visit the same websites over and over. Because we do our Internet browser, that’s Internet Explorer for most of us, Firefox, Chrome or Safari for some, remembers where we have gone before. Notice when we start to type an address in the URL address bar a list of sites previously visited is displayed below where we type. This is referred to as our Address and Toolbar History. Most of the time it is a convenient and fast way to get the site we want to go to without having to type the entire address.
But sometimes we want to eliminate some of the addresses in that list. There are several ways to manage the list either individually or remove the list entirely. If using Internet Explorer, open the browser, click on the small down arrow at the end of the address bar. A list of previous addresses will appear. If we hover our mouse over the item we want to delete a small X appears on the line of the address. Click the X and that entry disappears. Want to delete our entire browsing history? Click on the Gear icon and then click on Internet Options. In the dialogue box that opens make sure the General tab is selected and look for an area labeled Browsing History. Now click on Delete. A new box opens. Make sure the check box for History is selected and click on the delete button at the bottom of the window.
If using a public computer or a work computer it might be prudent to click on the Gear icon, Internet Options and in the Browsing History area put a check mark in the box labeled Delete Browsing History on Exit. Now when we finish a session on the Internet and close our browser the history of where we have been is deleted automatically. (Martha, shopping at work?) Or we can choose to open a browser in InPrivate, (Internet Explorer) Incognito, (Chrome) or new private window. (Firefox) These windows retain browsing history only so long as the browser is open.
Firefox, Chrome and Safari have similar processes and if they are not readily apparent, click on help or search for “how do I delete browser history in” which ever browser currently in use
Some readers have asked, “Is a way to print the browser history?” This is of particular use to System Administrators that are tasked with policing Internet use by employees. There is a very simple and useful program called BrowsingHistoryView or BrowsingHistoryView 64-bit for machines using virtually any browser. They can be downloaded for free from http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/browsing_history_view.html. Extract the files to a flash drive or the computer itself and run the program. Set the criteria such as how many days back to look. This will generate a list of all the sites the browser has been to and held in Browser History. To print it out, select all entries and save to a .txt file. Open the .txt file and print all or part of the displayed document.
Where have you been surfing?
For some additional reading material check out:
 | Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer |
 | Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks! |
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