[ScottAz]

I have a windows 7 HP and have never liked the idea that microsft has a history folder that tracks your web browsing.

I want to disable that feature, if it wont interfere with returning to a previously vied page or two or more.

Is that a possibility or no?

[Advertisements]

The history is stored only on the hard drive.
If you purge it, you will lose the ability to go back to previously viewed pages unless you type them back into the address bar.

This way of history storage has been part of Internet Explore since, well, version 3 14 years ago.

[Neil Jones]

The history is stored only on the hard drive.
If you purge it, you will lose the ability to go back to previously viewed pages unless you type them back into the address bar.

This way of history storage has been part of Internet Explore since, well, version 3 14 years ago.

[3quilibrium]

ScottAz,

I usually have Internet Explorer clear out my browsing history when I close the application. In Internet Explorer, go to your "Tools" option on the menu bar, choose "Internet Options", and on the "General" tab you should have a checkbox for "Delete Browsing History on Exit".

[Ehsanit]

The most modern version also has a feature named "In Private Browsing". If you enable that nothing will be stored to your computer: cookies, history, and everything won't even be written. It doesn't prevent you from using the back button to return to the page you just came from. It does of course stop you from returning to a site you found a few days back after you close the browser.

The advantages with this technique over 3quilibrium's include the following:
The data isn't saved in the first place, rather than saved and deleted. This stops it from being unearthed by a file recovery program.
The history isn't stored while you browse. This means that even if you leave your machine with the browser open somebody cannot look at your history, which they would be able to do under the other method.

The disadvantages include
It's possible to forget to start inPrivate. I would be inclined to enable 3quilibrium's suggestion just as a safeguard for when this happens. You can also modify the shortcut to IE by appending -private to it, which will always start IE in private mode.
People might wonder what you're trying to hide.

[ScottAz]

Ehsanit:

Thanks very much for the information, it is appreciated.

As far as what people may think I am trying to hide it is just that I don't like that anyone in the office can look at the history folder and see what sites I use to cunduct business. Kind of a paranoia I guess.

Of course I think Microsoft spys on us all of the time and they use what they gleen from our browsing habits to bombard us with advertising. But thats just me.

Again, I thank you all for the posts.

Scott

[Ehsanit]

As far as what people may think I am trying to hide it is just that I don't like that anyone in the office can look at the history folder and see what sites I use to cunduct business. Kind of a paranoia I guess.

Oh no! Paranoia? But I agree with you! I believe that there is a fundamental human right to privacy, not because you have any particular reason to hide something but because the other guys have no particular business knowing it. A word of caution however if this is an office environment: Whereas co-workers won't be able to examine your history on your own computer if you use either of our techniques, the company IT staff may (should, if they're half-way decent) keep logs on their server. I'm afraid that there is no way as far as I know to stop those from being made, and I doubt that we'd be allowed to discuss it here if there were.