How to Erase Browser History

If you want to make sure that no one can see where you have been online, what pages you were visiting and what you were seeing, you need to erase your browser's history. In shared computers it is absolutely necessary to do so, because everyone who will use the same device after you will have the chance to see what you were looking at before; images, videos, files, pages, websites or even emails can be stored in the history of the browser, being available to all users at any time. It is though recommended to erase your browser's history, even if you are using your own personal computer -- for safety reasons it's better to follow these steps.


Steps to Erase Browser History in Internet Explorer

How can you erase history in Internet Explorer:

  1. Go to Tools and then select Internet Options
  2. Once at Internet Options open the "General" tab.
  3. Go to Browsing history and click the "Delete" button.
  4. If you want to erase all the websites you have visited then you should click on the delete button and answer yes when you are asked if you want to erase it.
  5. When you are done, click Close

Then click ok and your history is erased. If your Internet explorer is older, you can follow the same steps -- there are minor differences in Internet Explorer when it comes to these functions. You should also keep in mind that when you are using IE you can erase the history but there is an index.dat file which shows the sites you have visited. This file cannot be erased.

Steps to Erase Browser History in Firefox

If you are using Firefox and you want to erase history of websites you visited, then you should follow these steps.

  1. Go to Tools and select Internet Options
  2. Then click on "Privacy".
  3. hen you are in Private area click "Clear Now".
  4. Once in "Clear Private Data" check the box that writes "Browsing history" and click "Clear Private Data Now".
  5. Click OK.

It is recommended to erase search history in Firefox as well. In this case you need to do this:

  1. Go to Tools and click on Internet Options
  2. Choose the "Privacy".
  3. When in 'Privacy' click "Clear Now".
  4. In "Clear Private Data" check the "Saved form and Search History" and click "Clear Private Data Now".
  5. Click OK.

Both in IE and Firefox you can choose to erase browsing history whenever you close the browser.