Hence, before we proceed to describe the procedure on how to delete the history of websites visited by an Internet surfer, it is pertinent to know a little about how the stored data or history may be a potential threat to the user as well as the different locations where the history is saved by the Internet Explorer. It is also important to know why the browser history needs to be deleted frequently or each time you use your computer.

Where the Browser History is Stored

Internet Explorer saves the Internet history or the records of the websites visited in different locations and these include:

• Address Bar records the list of the websites visited.
• AutoComplete saves the information you have typed on the Web.
• Search History
• Temporary Internet Files (TIF)
• Cookies
• Index.dat files

Browser History a Potential Privacy Threat

As the Web browser records all information regarding the websites visited by you, anyone who has entrée to your computer and hence the browser history will be able to learn all about your Web surfing activities – the sites visited by you, your searches on the Internet, files downloaded by you, images and videos seen by you and more such things. So, if you don’t want anyone, including your spouse, children, colleagues or boss, to know what you have been doing on your computer, you should regularly delete the browsing history from the hard drive. In addition, the files stored by the Web browser on different locations of the hard drive consume substantial space and slow down your Internet speed. Erasing the browser history also means you have a clean and spacious hard drive with appropriate Internet speed.

Deleting History of Websites Visited

Erasing all records of your Internet activities or the history of the websites visited is simple and effortless. The process can be achieved both manually as well as using any special history eraser software. Here, we shall describe the manual procedure for different versions of Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer 7.0

In the event your Web browser is Internet Explorer 7.0, follow the following procedure to delete the history of the websites visited or the URLs in the Address Bar:

• Click on ‘Tools’ menu at the top of Windows.
• Next, select the ‘Internet Options’.
• Hit on the ‘General’ button.
• This will open the ‘Browsing History’ region, click on the ‘Delete’ tab here.
• Click on the ‘Delete History’ tab to erase the history of websites visited by you.
• Then click on the ‘Yes’ option.
• Complete the process by hitting on the ‘OK’ button.

Internet Explorer 5.x/ 6.x

If your Web browser is Internet Explorer 5.x/ 6.x follow the procedure mentioned below to delete the history of websites visited in your computer hard drive:

• Go to ‘Tools’ menu at the top of Windows and click on it.
• Next, hit on the ‘Internet Options’ in the drop-down list of ‘Tools’ menu.
• Click on the ‘General’ button.
• Then, click on the ‘Clear History’ tab.
• Complete the procedure by hitting on the ‘OK’ tab.

Wrapping Up

Before we conclude, it is pertinent to mention that even if you erase the history of the websites visited manually, the index.dat files in Internet Explorer still saves the data and will continue to display the URLs of the sites surfed by you. It is impossible to erase the index.dat files manually as these are continuously used by Windows.

In addition, you should bear in mind that the browser history is only a tiny portion of all the history of your Internet activities recorded by Internet Explorer in different locations of the computer hard drive. Hence, if you are careful and want to protect complete privacy and security of your Web browsing, you should also delete the history stored in Windows as well as other locations as mentioned above.