How to Delete the History From Your Windows Computer

By LaDonna Hadley

Web pages are just one type of data saved to your computer history. Cookies are mini files that a website places in your computer through the browser to identify you and collect information about your actions while on the website. Browsers also store data such as passwords, auto-fill form entries and cached images in history. Learn how to delete any or all of these components from browsers in Windows 8 and how to customize settings to keep your information safe.

Chrome

From the Menu, choose History and click Clear Browsing Data.

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Select the time frame and then check the items to clear. Click Clear Browsing Data.

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To disable cookies, choose Settings from the menu. Select Show Advanced Settings and go to Privacy Settings. Click Content Settings. Choose how you want Chrome to handle cookies and click Done.

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Firefox

Click Menu and select History. To delete the browsing history and other data, choose Clear Recent History. From the pop-up window, select a time range, check the data you want to clear from your history and click Clear Now.

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To manually choose specific pages to delete or to delete pages by date, click Show All History from the menu. Choose the day or time period and then select the pages to delete from the list.

Tips

To select more than one page, press and hold Ctrl while you click on the pages. To select all, press Ctrl-A.

Next, click Organize on the menu bar and choose Delete.

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To disable Firefox browsing history, set custom privacy settings. Choose Options from the menu and go to the Privacy page. Under History, select Use Custom Settings for History and check or uncheck the items to change your settings. Selections are automatically saved.

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Tips

To prevent Firefox from saving passwords, go to the Security tab on the Options page and uncheck Remember Passwords for Sites. The selection is saved automatically.

Internet Explorer

From the menu, select Safety and then Delete Browsing History. From the pop-up window, choose the items to delete and then press Delete.

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To select a predetermined Privacy setting, select Internet Options from the menu. In the pop-up window, choose the Privacy tab. Select your desired setting and click OK.

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Tips

Privacy settings in Internet Explorer include: accept all cookies, low, medium, medium high, high and block all cookies. Slide the bar to each setting to see a description of what's included for each one.

To choose a custom setting to handle cookies, select Internet Options from the menu. In the pop-up window, choose the Privacy tab and click Advanced. In the next pop-up window, check the box to Override Automatic Cookie Handling. Choose how you want cookies handled and click OK.

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Safari

From the menu, select History. Choose the day or time period you want to remove history from and expand the list you want to delete. Right-click on a single page to remove it, or on the date bar to delete all the pages listed. Click Delete.

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To change how history is kept, choose Preferences from the menu. In the pop-up window on the General tab, choose when to Remove History Items. The selection is automatically saved.