[walky]

Hello ! Every morning on my company pc (running XP) I find the cronology completely cancelled.
I don't know if it's a bad setting or an intentional user action, as it's not possible to password protect the system (company's statement).
Any suggestion will be appreciated

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Welcome to G2G walky. Do you mean the history? Lets check what the setting for it is.

From Internet Explorer, go to TOOLS >INTERNET OPTIONS
In the thrid section of the window that comes up, what is the "Days to keep pages in History" set to?

-Ryan

[Ryan]

Welcome to G2G walky. Do you mean the history? Lets check what the setting for it is.

From Internet Explorer, go to TOOLS >INTERNET OPTIONS
In the thrid section of the window that comes up, what is the "Days to keep pages in History" set to?

-Ryan

[walky]

Hi Ryan, yes it's the history, days to keep is (as usual) set to 20

[Ryan]

Hmmm...
Who has access to this computer during the night? It would seem that they might be cleaning out the history.
Also, what kind of a company do you work for. Depending on the line of work, you may ask that they revisit this no password policy of theirs.

-Ryan

[walky]

Imho I suspect some strange hack, as all people here around "should" have no special reason to surf in the off hours on my pc instead of on their.
I agree with you about policies, but there are no ears for this suggestion.
Just to raise some protest, I'll set a password this evening, but tomorrow I will be asked to restore no password protection. Tomorrow we will see.

[warriorscot]

On corporate and government systems the histories are sometimes erased by the anti spyware system in operation, any maintenance may also have done it, i would check with your IT services or network administrator.

[walky]

This is a small company (<20 pc), and we have not a real IT responsible! I am in charge for pc and intranet maintenance, that's why I am asking around for help. Other pc's have not such problem.

[dsenette]

Imho I suspect some strange hack, as all people here around "should" have no special reason to surf in the off hours on my pc instead of on their.

if you think there's no reason for someone to use your machine instead of theirs...you've got another thing coming....it's alot easier for them to not worry about surfing for p0rn on your machine instead of theirs (which is one of the few reasons to empty an IE history in a corporate setting)...

if the password doesn't fly....we can disable changing the history settings...and disable deleting the history for a day or so...that way you can see the kinds of reasons for someone to use your machine instead of these....i personally think that this is an office mate not wanting to get caught doing something he knows he shouldn't be doing

[walky]

if the password doesn't fly....we can disable changing the history settings...and disable deleting the history for a day or so...

This intrigue me: how can I do it?

[dsenette]

all of the machines are running xp pro right?

[walky]

The most are XP, other are 2000 server, some w9x even exist .
Your suggestion to disable history settings lead me to group policy settings (mmc->gpedit, etc.): now the ie general panel is not accessible... No low-level user should be able to clean the history.
Therefore this evening the machine will be left with no password and history settings/clening disabled.

[dsenette]

i was gonna suggest disabling the "change history settings" but..dropping the generals tab will do it as well...(though...in theory...they could delete the history through the history window)


edit: p.s. good job of staying a few steps ahead!

Edited by dsenette, 06 December 2005 - 09:20 AM.

[warriorscot]

lol, almost all computer problems can be traced back to the person behind the keyboard.

Passwords are always a good idea for any system, especially on XP you should at least have a password protected administrator account for XP if you are responisible for computer maintenance, it actually opens up vulnerailities to not have a password.

And passwords open up the possibilty of accountability you cant have people accessing anything they want from their work-place these days, it can cause problems for the computers by people downloading and accessing things they shouldnt and it can cause legal problems, you dont want to come into work one day and find the authorities have taken all your computers.

[walky]

After few days with clear history function disabled: all links are present.
I'll report this fact and all comments from this forum to the boss.
Thanks to everybody.

[dsenette]

good job cyber sleuth!