Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Follow these steps to delete your browser's history.
How can I delete items I have been to on Google?
•
That question could mean a couple of things: the history of web sites you've visited, or perhaps the responses that auto-fill shows you as you type in your next Google search. The "trick" is that neither has anything to do with Google at all. But both have everything to do with your browser.
•
If you just want to delete the list of sites you've visited, whether you found them via Google or got to them some other way, you need to clear your browser's history and cache. In Internet Explorer:
- Click on the Tools menu
- Click on Internet Options...
- Click on the General tab, if it's not already showing
- In the Temporary Internet files section, click on Delete Files...
- Make sure Delete all offline content is checked
- Press OK
- In the History section, click on Clear History, and answer Yes to the confirmation.
- OK your way back out.
If what concerns you is the list of previous search terms that start to show as you type in a new search term for Google, that's just your browser's AutoComplete feature at work. It works on most web forms, and the Google search page is just one of those forms. To delete the contents of the AutoComplete list in Internet Explorer:
- Click on the Tools menu
- Click on Internet Options...
- Click on the Content tab
- In the Personal information section, click on the AutoComplete button
- Click on the Clear Forms button, and answer Yes to the resulting confirmation
Your Google AutoComplete history, as well as the AutoComplete history for any other web forms is now erased.
Article C2360 - May 29, 2005
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
when the drop down box displayed too much that i couldnt get to the "delete history" thing so what i did was typed in a letter then it will show clear history and then click on that and your done.
Posted by: nive at May 21, 2010 5:32 AMAlso having problems deleting google history am I missing some thing? would have thought that this would be simple
Posted by: Martin Jones at June 4, 2011 11:49 PMplease can I know how to delete my information on google...
18-Oct-2011
I'm using IE 8, and there is a bar at the top of the window, where I can click to see recent pages visited, under titles of "Historial" and "Favoritos". If I click the title, it shows me up to the last 20. If I eliminate one of them, I am left with 19. BUT there are some that will NOT delete. Perhaps a virus put them there. No matter what I do, they stay in the list, and I want them to disappear. Any hints, Leo? Thanks.
Posted by: Gerard O'Hara at November 25, 2011 10:59 AM@Gerard
Posted by: Mark J at November 25, 2011 2:29 PMThis article was written for IE7 but the process is very similar for IE8. Follow the instructions in the article until you get to the screen which says Delete Browsing History. In IE8 you'll get a screen with similar options except it will have check boxes instead of buttons. If you want to clear the history of the sites you've visited, make sure the History box is checked. You can check or uncheck any other boxes depending on what you want to do with that saved data.
How do I clear my search history in IE 7?