Ask Leo!

How do I clear my search history in IE 7?

Home » Internet

Summary: Sometimes you just want to clear what you've searched for from the browser's history. These steps clear that information in Internet Explorer 7.

OK, you've show how to do it for Internet Explorer 6 and for FireFox - how about those of us on IE 7? How do we clear the search history?

The good news is that it's apparently very similar to IE 6.

But naturally the names and locations of some items have changed.

In Internet Explorer 7, hit the Tools menu, Internet Options menu item, and you should see something like this:

IE 7's Internet Options Dialog

Underneath Browsing History, click on Delete and you'll get this:

IE7 Delete Browsing History Dialog

Obviously there are many things you can delete here. If you're looking specifically to clear the searches that you've entered into the Google home page, then click on Delete Forms...:

IE7 Deleting Form Data Confirmation

Hit Yes and you're done.

Note that this will clear auto-complete entries from all web forms, not just the Google homepage.

And there are still several other places in Windows that remember things for you - I'll refer you to that previous article: How do I delete history items from my Google tool bar? for more of those.

Related:

Article 10902 | Posted November 9, 2006

Recent Comments
20 Comments

Hi,
I've tried this method of preventing hand-up when deleting the browser history and it works once, then when you try next time it just goes back into endless delete mode. You have to Ctl/Alt/Del, and even this wont respond easily! It's driving me crazy, especially as all the other delete options work, but not the browser history. any clues?

Posted by: Colin Schofield at July 22, 2007 12:45 PM

I have Internet Explorer 7. I need to be able to view the history but I can't remember how to do it. I do NOT want to delete it. Can you please tell me how to get into the history? Thanks!

Posted by: Ashley at November 16, 2007 1:55 PM

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Type CTRL+H

Leo


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32)

iD8DBQFHPjoSCMEe9B/8oqERAiyEAJ4qCBMWDLuQy4biU3VKbtDtqc1sPwCbB0/G
sTXwnbxxP8dTW7uAVTNnfws=
=n4dz
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Posted by: Leo A. Notenboom at November 16, 2007 4:47 PM

how can i delete history in windows vista

Posted by: bader at January 31, 2008 8:42 PM

Leo - I was excited to find this page. I've not been able to find anything esle this helpful on the issue of the "deleting browser history" function hanging. The problem I have is that I don't see "Internet Options" in my Controll Panel. I thought this was just a function of the IE7 upgrade, but from what you have said, it appears I should have that setting despite having IE7. Any idea why it's not showing up in my control panel and how to fix the situation?

(I haven't found any other way to fix the deleting-browser-history problem so I'm really hoping for a fix with your approach.)

Thanks!

Posted by: Gill at February 4, 2008 12:51 PM

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

I don't know why it's not in control panel, but the
instructions above get to it it from within IE7 itself. In
IE7's Tools menu you should find Internet Options.

Leo


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32)

iD8DBQFHp+ZNCMEe9B/8oqERAniAAJ9xvO8Gv50x8iymW6Kt5/NcIPlihwCeLz7C
uQud6v3eKEF9fYrxsM9cNl4=
=bOOY
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Posted by: Leo A. Notenboom at February 4, 2008 8:30 PM

I had the same issue with IE7. When I would try to delete the browsing history it would hang indefinitely and I would be forced to close through task manager. I tried everything in the book to fix it, short of throwing my computer out the window...

My problem stemmed from Nero Scout. It's some sort of indexing software that was installed with Nero 7 ultimate. Strangely, when I installed Nero, I remember that I selected to NOT install Scout. Anyway, here's what fixed it for me:

1. Search for NeroScoutOptions.exe and run
2. Uncheck box labeled "Enable Nero Scout" in upper left corner of window
3. Click Ok
4. Reboot
5. Try to delete history

This worked for me after two weeks of pulling out my hair. I unistalled and reinstalled IE, I ran numerous malware removal tools, I did a HJT eval... Funny how one little checkbox can ruin everything.

Posted by: Jason at July 5, 2008 4:17 AM

In addition to the above, you may also want to run msconfig to see if you have NmBgMonitor.exe or NMFirstStart.exe in the startup list. If so you may want to disable them to prevent Scout from running automatically.

If this fix works for you, but you find the problem arising again, bring up task manager via Ctrl-Alt-Del and look for a process titled NMIndexsvr.exe or similar. That's Scout running in the background. End Process to kill it.

Happy Hunting

Posted by: Jason at July 5, 2008 4:52 AM

You can also just have IE nuke History on exit. found it here - http://www.groovypost.com/howto/microsoft/ie/automatically-clear-ie7-browser-temporary-files-at-exit/ or use a batch file but I cant figure out how to do that yet.

Posted by: SFree at October 6, 2008 9:31 AM

If you want to delete the browser address bar history do the following:
1. Open the command line.
2. Run regedit.
3. Delete the values that you want to get rid of at this path:
HEKY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLS
OR
Run a program like SecureWindows from PC-Kitchen:
http://www.pc-kitchen.com

Posted by: andysacks at October 23, 2008 5:12 PM

Post a comment on "How do I clear my search history in IE 7?":






(Email Address will not be published.)

Remember Me?

By popular demand...
my tip jar
Cuppa Joe
Buy Leo a Latte!

(you may use HTML tags for style)

New!

RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed specifically for comments on this article.

Before commenting, please...

Please wait. Your comment is being processed ...


Ask Your Question:


ask-leo.com
Web

Stay Informed

Weekly Newsletter

Archives

By Category
By Date

Advertisers

Advertise on Ask Leo!

««   »»

Question? - Ask Leo!
Who is Leo?
Link to Leo!

Terms, Conditions & Privacy