Tips & Tricks

Clearing the History and Temporary Internet Files Folders

Have you ever had a nosey coworker, a snoopy family member, or a workplace that monitors Internet use? Want to keep them from knowing what you’ve been up to? An easy way is to clear your Internet History folder and delete the Temporary Internet Files. (This is a big help around Christmas shopping time!)

Here’s how you do it:

Open Internet Explorer and click on Tools, Internet Options. A pop-up box will appear.

To delete all your Temporary Internet files, click on the Delete Files button. It will ask you to confirm your action and will permanently delete your files when you click OK.

Note: Keep in mind that by doing this to keep others from viewing your files, you won’t be able to view them after you hit the OK button either. But don’t worry, this doesn’t delete the websites in your Favorites folder or anything drastic like that, so deleting these files aren’t a big deal. (Note the word “Temporary” in the title Temporary Internet files.)

Now, to delete all folders and sub-folders under History, simply click the Clear History button and confirm the action by hitting OK. You now have a clean History folder.

Also helpful in keeping those who are a little too curious about your personal business at bay is to choose how long you want your History folder to store the websites you’ve visited. By increasing or decreasing the number in the box next to the text “Days to keep pages in history,” you’ve essentially told your browser when to automatically purge the oldest websites when it reaches the end of the time limit you’ve specified. For example, if I entered 14 days in the box, then the Internet Explorer would periodically purge all websites I visited more than 14 days ago.

The maximum number of days you can enter to keep track of your Internet surfing history is 99. If you don’t want your nosey coworker or a family member with a birthday to view your History folder, it’s best to store them for the least amount of time you’re comfortable with, say a couple of days or a week. Also, since the disk space needed for the storage of this history increases with the number of days you enter, it’s wise to keep a history for the minimum amount of time.

--Alexandra Wolf

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