INTERNET ARTICLES

Clear Search History

Knowing how to clear search history is useful not only for getting out of potentially embarrassing situations, but it is sometimes necessary when using your computer or after surfing the internet. Read on to learn more about how to clear search history ...

Now why, dear prickly little friend, do you need to know how to clear search history?  Why would anyone need to do this?  Well, sure.  Some want to erase evidence of their visits to porn sites or to find-a-friend-online site search records.  Sometimes, browsers, ISPs, and DOSs or desktops, in conjunction, get jammed, hang load, or screw up visibility, so users need to clear search history, clear the cache, and delete the pre-existing cookies and/or temporary internet files to get optimum usability.

Not that I know much about all of this, other than what my genius of a geek of a friend has taught me or what I have had to discover by trial and error and self-teaching by searching (which is what you may be doing at this moment, trying to figure out how in the hell to clear search history).  But what I have learned follows here:

1. First you find the overt history.
CLEAR SEARCH HISTORY with MOZILLA BROWSER

If you use Mozilla Firefox, you will
a. go to the top of whatever page you are on, click GO, and then click on HISTORY (at the bottom of the drop-down menu); OR
b. Hold CTRL + H keys down at the same time.
c. a marginal frame will appear on the left of your screen, showing folders with, for example, the words or phrases TODAY; TWO DAYS AGO; THREE DAYS AGO; OLDER THAN SIX DAYS; etc.. 
d. You can double click on an individual folder, then delete the individual site addresses you have visited, or can delete the folder altogether. (If you cannot delete the whole folder, but want to, highlight the first entry; go to the last entry, and holding the SHIFT key down, click.  Everything will be highlighted, then, and you can click DEL.)

CLEAR SEARCH HISTORY with IE (INTERNET EXPLORER)

If you use IE (Internet Explorer), you will
a. see an icon that is a clock with a counterclockwise arrow. 
b. Click on the icon. A window in the left of your screen will open/a frame will appear.
c. You will see little calendars, with, next to each, the words or phrases LAST WEEK, MONDAY, TUESDAY, etc..  Click on one of the calendars, then click on the folder there.  It will likely say My Computer.
d. Once you click on the folder, the list of site addresses you have visited will appear.  Delete the individual site addresses you have visited (by highlighting and clicking DEL), or can delete the folder altogether. (If you cannot delete the whole folder, but want to, highlight the first entry; go to the last entry, and holding the SHIFT key down, click.  Everything will be highlighted, then, and you can click DEL.)

Now here’s the thing.  Even though you have done a clear search history with the visible HISTORY folders/files, you still will have evidence of those visits—in the bowels of your computer—so you will have to do a clear search history of sorts there.  This is tricky, because if you do not know what you are doing, you can wreck your system.  But for someone snooping on you who DOES know what he or she is doing, the evidence will not be gone altogether just because you have done a surface clear search history.  The information is also in your registry.  If you want to risk it, and are careful, you can do the following:

Go to START.
Click RUN.  You will get a bar with the word OPEN:
Type REGEDIT. It might take a minute, but you will then have a window showing keys.  One key will say HISTORY.
Click EDIT, then click DELETE.
Close the registry and re-boot your computer.

Done!

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