Internet Explorer Delete Browsing History Menu

Today’s How-To Guide for the Computer Beginner we will go into more detail about Internet Explorer’s:

Delete Browsing History Tab.

Keep in mind at times people do shorten the name Internet Explorer. 

Most people will refer to this as IE. 

It is basically just the initials of

Internet Explorer.

If you come across IE9.  It means Internet Explorer Version 9.   The number represents the version of IE or Internet Explorer.

So Today’s lesson could also be termed as, “

IE delete browsing history’

tab.

We have touched on the Delete Browsing History tab in a previous article about the computer cache (pronounced CASH).

I wanted to go down the list for each section so you were comfortable knowing what each section of the delete browsing history does.

1. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.





The Internet Options box should open to the General tab.

The top section is the home page.

The Second - Browsing History section is what we will be dealing with today.






I have been also asked how to:

delete browsing history on exit

Notice in the Browsing History section you have a box you can check mark above.  This will delete your internet history automatically.  The internet history is basically the url’s that you have visited.  Computer Hope as options for older browsers. 


Back to the Browsing History section:
If you hit the ‘delete’ button your Delete Browsing History menu will come up.

At the Top of the menu you will notice is its called, Delete Browsing History.

Lets break this menu down by section.  If you want to ‘choose’ a section? 

Click on the square next to the title in order to make an “check mark” there.  See my example below where I checked “Preserve favorites website data” under the delete browsing history menu.

Preserve Favorites Website Data

If you have saved any websites as your favorites? Option one will save the cache and the cookies, etc on those sites. 

This cache option allows you to leave those sites alone.  It’s a nice feature they have added to Internet Explorer 9.

What is your favorites?

This is the section of your web browser at the top that allows you to save favorite websites – LIKE THIS ONE! (giggles)

Try it!  Click on “Favorites”, and then click to “Add to Favorites”.

We will go into the Favorites Section more later.


I will give you an example of a favorite that I go to regularly.  I have boards that I go to that have discussions about faith.  If I click the preserve favorite website data, because my faith board is under my ‘favorites’ section that I have pictured above?  It will load the page faster, and remember my login information.

So:

is to ensure that this data is not deleted, a check mark must be placed next to the Preserve Favorites website data option. 

Temporary Internet Files

The second option in this menu deals with Temporary Internet Files.   IE9 stores images from the websites and media files of Web pages that you have visited in an effort to reduce load time on your next visit to that page.

Since you have already saved your favorite websites you will delete all the images, etc from other websites that you have visited, and will free up some space by deleting the temporary files. 

We all go traveling around the internet, and each page is pretty much saved.  You don’t need them all, and this basically throws out the trash.

Cookies

Tech FAQ’s Describes web cookies:

A browser cookie is a small piece of information sent by a web server to a web browser to be stored for future use. The data in the browser cookie will be sent back to the web server whenever the browser reconnects to the web site.
Cookies are commonly used to store user preference information, such as web site options. Cookies are also used to store shopping cart contents. The most security-relevant use of browser cookies is when they are used to store authentication data, such as user names and passwords.

I normally check this one myself

History

The fourth section of the Delete Browsing History menu deals with History. IE9 records and stores a list of all websites that you visit.

The others sections dealt with data, cookies, images, files, etc.  This basically deals with the URL addresses stored.

Download History

Any time you download a file through your browser, IE9 keeps a record of it including its filename as well as the date and time which it was downloaded.

Keep in mind this does NOT delete the download itself.  Just the list.  Some people prefer to keep this, and others don’t.

Form Data

The sixth option deals with Form data. Any time you enter information into a form on a website, IE9 stores some of that data. 

Pictured here I was going to comment on a blog or website.  The first field asked me for my name.  I typed in H, and the form data that was saved in Internet Explorer Browser came up with Hannah Thomas.  It retrieved this from a comment box I had filled out on another site. 

Although this can be very convenient, it can also become an obvious privacy issue.

Passwords

The seventh option deals with Passwords. When entering a password on a Web page for something such as your email login, IE9 will usually ask if you would like for the password to be remembered.



If you choose for the password to be remembered, it will be stored by the browser and then prepopulated the next time you visit that Web page.  It basically fills in the blanks next time you visit the website.

I will admit some sites I will allow this, and others I won’t.  My example again is a faith board I go to often.  I will save the password in the browser.  If I’m paying a bill online?  I don’t want that type of information in the browser.


I personally don’t checkmark this section for deletion, but it can be useful for others.  If you wish all your saved passwords to be deleted you would check this section.

ActiveX Filtering and Tracking Protection Data

The eighth and final option deals with InPrivate Filtering data. This data is stored as a result of the InPrivate Filtering feature, which detects where websites may be automatically sharing details about your visit.

An example of this would be code that could tell a site owner about other sites that you have recently visited.

Online Tech Tips has a good article on InPrivate Filtering data worth checking out.  It goes into more detail. 

When you have made your selections you will click the delete button at the very bottom of the Delete Browsing History menu.  If you want to get out of this menu?  Click cancel.

With older versions of Internet Explorer:

From the Tools menu in the upper right, select Internet Options.

1. Under "Browsing history", click Delete... .
2. To delete your cache, click Delete files... . To delete your cookies, click Delete cookies... .
   To delete your history, click Delete history... .
3. Click Close, and then click OK to exit.

I hope today’s How-To Guide for the Computer Beginner on the Delete Browsing History Menu was helpful. 

If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment.

Don’t forget to subscribe by leaving your email address in the section provided so you don’t miss out on future lessons!

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What is Cache? How do you clear Cache?

Today's how-to guide for computer beginners is about computer CACHE!

Dealing with computer cache is a basic computer operation, and will be useful for you to know.




Here is are some list of questions I have been asked, and we will go over them one by one!

How you pronounce ‘cache’?  It is pronounced CASH

Today, we are going cover the following questions:

What is cache or Define computer cache? 

How-To clear your computer cache, or what some people call how do you delete your computer cache

Temporary Internet Files refers to a folder on your computer where the cache is stored.  When read about the two terms you will notice that some people refer to them as one in the same. 

In other words, How-to clear the temporary internet files could be asked instead of using the word ‘cache’.  Other times they could be referring to Disk Cleanup.

Definition of Computer Cache

I will try to explain what Cache is for the computer beginner, and here is a couple of cache definitions that google came up with!   There are different types of cache, and we will be talking about internet cache today.

Different types of Cache is also explained briefly at Free Computer Maintenance.

Cache as most people call it are basically the Temporary Internet Files folder on your computer!

It contains a kind of travel record of the items you have seen, heard, or downloaded from the Web, including images, sounds, Web pages, even cookies. Typically these items are stored in the Temporary Internet Files folder.

How Stuff Works has an article on Cache as well, and they use a different visual to describe it. 

Your Internet connection is the slowest link in your computer. So your browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, etc.) uses the hard disk to store HTML pages, putting them into a special folder on your disk. The first time you ask for an HTML page, your browser renders it and a copy of it is also stored on your disk. The next time you request access to this page, your browser checks if the date­ of the file on the Internet is newer than the one cached. If the date is the same, your browser uses the one on your hard disk instead of downloading it from Internet. In this case, the smaller but faster memory system is your hard disk and the larger and slower one is the Internet.

Storing these files in your cache can make browsing the Web faster because it usually takes your computer less time to display a Web page (or what they call loading the page) when it can call up some of the page's elements or even the entire page from your local Temporary Internet Files folder.

So if you have NOT been to a website yet your temporary files do not have a record of any information on that website, and it will take longer to load.

Now next time you are surfing the web.....
you will know why some pages LOAD faster than others!

Keep in mind at times you need to clear out that cache, because it does take up room on your computer! It will slow your performance down as well.

People ask me how often you need to clear cache, and it really depends on how often you use your computer and the internet in particular!

Believe or not you will know how often you should clear cache the more you use the computer, and the more your surf the internet! Keep in mind if you have never cleared cache before it may take a while to empty the cache, but it will NOT take as long afterwards (after you do it the first time).

Clearing the Cache or Deleting the Cache at times is more about personal preference.  Some people do this before they browse the internet, and others may do this once a week.  If you notice things are starting to slow down a bit – clear the cache to see if that helps.

Keep in mind if you are like some people that just pop on for 10 minutes to check email, and read a bit then sign off you will have to clear cache less often!

Especially with older web browsers: If you empty the cache to often loading web pages will always take forever, and it will be very frustrating! Its just like seasoning your food!

You don't want to much or to little in the cache to make it work well for you! When you do clear the cache things will take longer to load next time you visit your favorite webpage at times! After a while believe me you will notice your performance difference! TRUST me on that!

Before Proceeding we need to find out what web browser you use.

What is a Browser, Web Browser?

Most of the time if you look at the top of your web browser you should see a ‘help’ section.  You can click that, and search for ‘cache’ for instructions similar to our lesson below.  As much as I try to keep up on changes to web browser update sometimes there is a delay from me.  So keep that ‘help’ section in MIND!

I will tell you I have more than one web browser on my computer, and that would NOT be unusual!  So, I clear the cache for each one separately.

 

Clear Cache on IE or Clear Cache on Internet Explorer 9:

We will start with deleting cache on Internet Explorer 9.0 version first.

 

This is the Internet Explorer or IE web browser Icon.

Look to your upper right hand corner of your web browser, and find the symbol I’m pointing to here.

This will bring up a menu with some options.





Look for Safety First
And you will next be offered the option of delete browsing history.




Internet Browser have come a long way, and now they give you the option of saving some cache that you use.  The top portion would be websites that you have placed in your ‘favorites’ section on your browser.

I would say most of the time people like the first four clicked.  They would be self explanatory.

 

For a better Explanation of all your options?  I wrote a How-To Article just on ‘delete browsing history’ menu.

You can delete files you downloaded, information you have typed into forms online, passwords that are filled in automatically by the browser (you would have an the option at the time to allow this). 

Once you have made your choices you would look to the bottom of this screen, and push your delete button. 

Once the process of clearing your cache or deleting your cache is done at the bottom of your browser you should get a message similar to the one I pictured below.



Clearing Cache on Internet Explorer 6
Clearing cache and cookies on Internet Explorer 7
Deleting Cache and cookies on Internet Explorer 8

Clear Cache In Mozilla FoxFire 5.0

This time in Mozilla FoxFire

 

Some people have this orange foxfire Rectangle button that is pictured (top left hand side).  When you click on that




you will be presented with a number of choices.





You want to click on the ‘options’, and then on the advanced.

Other versions of Foxfire:

Click Tools, and then Options

As you can see pictured.  The advanced, then network, then clear now.

You would click ‘okay’ on the bottom for close this window.


With your history you would go into the ‘privacy’ section, and click the options you wish in much the same way we did here.


My Foxfire Browser I have option at the top of my browser to go directly to tools





I go down to the section called ‘clear recent history’










At the top you have an option of how much you wish to clear.  My option says ‘everything’.  You can pick timeframe you wish.

I also make sure I click the cache, cookies option as well. 

Then the CLEAR NOW button.

 

How-To Clear Cache in Google Chrome

This is your Google Chrome Icon, and you want to click on it to open a web browser window.

 

In the TOP right hand side of your browser window you will see a symbol that represents what the call, ‘Menu’

Click the Chrome menu on the browser toolbar.
Select Tools.
Select Clear browsing data.

In the dialog that appears, select the checkboxes for the types of information that you want to remove.

Use the menu at the top to select the amount of data that you want to delete.

When you are finished with your choices.

Click Clear browsing data.

I hope my how-to lesson for the computer beginner on CACHE was understandable to you.  If you have any questions or comments please feel free to use the comment box.


Don’t forget to leave your email in our subscribe section so you don’t miss any future lessons!

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