How to Clean History

Internet Explorer 7. I've elected to demonstrate how to clean history from both IE7 and 8 for two reasons. The first is because Internet Explorer is the most used web browser in the country. Secondly, IE6 is more or less obsolete at this point, and typically doesn't run on any of the newer machines. This is both frustrating and awesome: frustrating because I couldn't cover IE6, but awesome because my machine is too cool to run old stuff.

• 1.Open Internet Explorer 7.
• 2.On the menu bar across the top, select Tools.
• 3.In Tools, select Internet Options.
• 4.Under the category of Browsing History, select Delete.
• 5.You may select individually, but I much prefer the Delete All button at the bottom.
• 6.It'll ask you if you're sure. If you are, click Yes.

Internet Explorer 8. Internet Explorer 8 is one of the browsers I have on my current machine. Since Internet Explorer is currently the most widely used web browser, most websites are built using IE, and therefore will run better on the most recent version. There is a beta edition of Internet Explorer 9 available for download, but until they put out the actual IE9, I'll wait on downloading it.

• 1.Open Internet Explorer 8.
• 2.Press Ctrl + Shift + Del.
• 3.Unselect what you don't want to delete (they will already all be selected), and click Delete.

Or . . .

• 1.Open Internet Explorer 8.
• 2.On the menu bar across the top, select Tools.
• 3.In Tools, select Internet Options.
• 4.Under the category of Browsing History, select Delete.
• 5.Unselect what you don't want to delete (they will already all be selected), and click Delete.

Mozilla Firefox. I've never been a huge fan of Macs. My wife swears up, down, and sideways by them, but I do love me some Firefox. With a simple layout and its ease of use, Firefox is the browser to use if you have a Mac. That's a personal opinion.

• 1.Open Firefox.
• 2.Press Ctrl + Shift + Del.
• 3.In the drop menu, select what you wish to clear. I usually opt for Everything.
• 4.Press Clear Now.

Or . . .

• 1.Open Firefox.
• 2.On the menu bar across the top, select Tools.
• 3.In Tools, select Options…
• 4.In Options…, click the Privacy tab.
• 5.There will be a drop menu that defaults to Remember History. This is where you can change if your web browser remembers your history, does not remember your history, or something in between.
  • a.Remember History will have a clickable link that reads clear your recent memory. Click this and proceed from Step 3 above.
  • b.Never Remember History will have a clickable link that reads clear all current history. Click this and proceed from Step 3 above.
  • c.Use Custom Settings for History is a little more complicated. If you unselect Automatically start Firefox in a private browsing session, a few more options will be available to you. Select Clear history when Firefox closes and click Okay. Close Firefox.

Safari. When I was between computers, I was running an old eMac that was running a current version of Safari. I didn't care for it myself, but this was largely due to the operating system being too old to support the browser and causing all kinds of calamitous insanity. I'm certain Safari is a perfectly wonderful browser, but I just don't use it myself. To clean history on Safari, step one is to kill all indigenous peoples . . . Kidding, just kidding, I would never advocate genocide.

• 1.Open Safari.
• 2.In the menu bar, select Edit.
• 3.Select Reset Safari.
• 4.Check Clear All History and Reset Top Sites, and anything else you feel you want to reset.
• 5.Click Reset.
• 6.In the menu bar, select History.
• 7.Select Clear History.

Google Chrome. This is the browser I use at present. I like it, by and large, though it doesn't run some websites very smoothly as it's not 100 percent compatible with Internet Explorer. GMail and Google Docs is a Godsend-and-a-half. Here's how to clean history in Google Chrome.

• 1.Open Google Chrome.
• 2.Select the Tools icon on the far right side of the Search bar.
• 3.Select History.
• 4.On the far right, click Edit items…
• 5.Select individual items to remove, or select Clear All Browsing Data.
• 6.You can select specific things to delete, or in the drop menu, select Everything.
• 7.Click Clear Browsing Data.
• 8.Select Done removing items… to the far right of the screen, and close.

Opera. I'll be honest here, I know very little about the Opera browser. I had to borrow a friend's computer. He loves Opera, and is systematically trying to convert me from the "Dark Side of Google Chrome." He has yet to succeed. Anyway, here are the broken down steps of how to clean history for the Opera browser.

• 1.Open Opera.
• 2.Click on the Tools prompt.
• 3.Select Delete private data.
• 4.Select the Details button.
• 5.Click on Clear history of visited links.
• 6.Click the Delete button.