Delete browsing history: how to permanently delete and delete cookies and cache from your web browser
It has always been quite easy to delete your internet browsing search history. Your favorite browser, be it Internet Explorer, Firefox or another, comes with the option to clear your Internet, web and browser search history and clear cookies and cache. The trick is simply knowing what to do.
Now remember that just like deleting other files, these files are not permanently erased until they are written, so there are numerous special programs to permanently erase your internet and search history. However, although most users do not know how to clear history, even fewer know how to recover it, so using these built-in features will be successful for most computer users.
Most people who surf the web still use Internet Explorer. In the top menu, just click on Tools / Options / Internet Options / General. Then click “delete files”, then click OK. Lastly, click on “clear history”, then click Yes when prompted.
Safari users have it easy. Just click History in the top menu and then click Clear History at the bottom of the list that appears. In case you didn’t know, Safari is now freely available to Windows users. It is one of the best browsers when it comes to protecting your search history and enabling private browsing.
If you are a Mozilla FireFox user, you will select Tools / Options / Privacy / Delete. It’s a piece of cake, right?
AOL is so simple … Settings / Preferences / Toolbars and sounds / Clear history now.
Of course, having to choose “toolbars and sounds” doesn’t sound intuitive, but it does raise an important point. If you have toolbars in your browser, like the Google, Yahoo, or Alexa toolbars, those also save your search history for future reference … which is actually quite useful when you’re trying to find something again and not you can remember which search term was successful.
However, if you’re trying to cover your tracks, you don’t want that information to sit there for prying eyes. As an example, click the down arrow to the right of where you enter your search in the Google toolbar, and you will see your search history right in front of you. Fortunately, you will also see a link that says Clear History. Just click there and your history will disappear from view.
All toolbars offer this type of option, as well as an option to not even remember your internet search history, although you may need to go into your browser and disable the AutoComplete feature.
But again, if you really want to make sure your search history is gone forever, you will need third-party privacy control software to do so. These programs can not only clear history, cache, and cookies, but will usually permanently remove them from your computer where they cannot be recovered with data recovery or recovery software. Most of the programs on the market use both government and military level wipe protocols, which erase your computer’s data forever.
