If you are still confused, take the instance of the shopping portal Amazon.com. While shopping on this site, if anyone puts an item in the shopping cart and shuts down the computer without making payments for the selected item, the cookies will keep the entry in the shopping car till the visitor goes back to the site another time. While there are numerous myths relating to cookies – they are employed as spam, they function like viruses erasing data from your computer and they spawn pop-ups, the fact is that cookies are always a potential risk to your computer as well as confidentiality.

Though cookies occupy a minute space of your hard disc, they invade your privacy by storing up confidential data such as your name and password on secluded login pages, statistics relating to your account, your preferment or favorites and even the options made by you during your previous visit to the site. Even when you erase your surfing history, the cookies, function like an atlas, will display your favorites, passwords, penchant and other such aspects. Although they don’t possess sufficient data, they at least inform you that you had visited a particular website, which has generated them. In addition, some atrocious cookies will also track your visits to other websites.

Nevertheless, if you want cookies may be erased from your computer and the procedure too is uncomplicated. You have the choice of cleaning the hard disc either manually or using any history erasing software. Here, it is important to mention that to a great extent, the process of wiping out the cookies from your computer is determined by the Web browser you are using. Therefore, here we will focus on two main aspects related to erasing cookies – the manual process and the different procedures applicable for different Web browsers step-wise.

Erase Cookies in Internet Explorer 7.0:

• At the top of the screen you will find the ‘Menu’
• Go to ‘Tools’ tab in the ‘Menu’
• Click on the ‘Internet Options’ tab
• Next click on the ‘General’ button
• Select the ‘Browsing History’ and click on the ‘Delete’ tab
• Then click on the ‘Delete Cookies’ tab in the ‘Delete Browsing History’
• You will find two options here – ‘Yes’ and ‘Cancel’. Click on the ‘Yes’ button
• Then click on the ‘Close’ tab followed by another click on the ‘OK’ button

Erase Cookies in Internet Explorer 5.x/ 6.x:

• Like in Internet Explorer go to the top of the screen where the ‘Menu’ is located
• Click on the ‘Tools’ tab in the ‘Menu’
• Next click on the ‘Internet Options’ button
• Select the ‘Content’ tab in ‘Internet Options’
• Then click on the ‘AutoComplete’ tab
• Here you will find two options – ‘Clear Forms’ and ‘Clear Password’
• Click on the ‘Clear Forms’ tab
• Remove the ‘tick’ mark from the ‘Forms’ check box to ensure that the Internet Explorer does not save this data in future

Erase Cookies in Internet Explorer 8.0:
Internet Explorer 8.0, still in its Beta Stages, offers a unique option called ‘Private’ that enables you to browse the Internet without having to bother about temporary files like cookies being stored on your computer. If you are fed up of removing the browsing history each time you surf the Internet, just turn on the ‘Private’ option on Internet Explorer 8.0 and forget about your browsing history being stored up in the ‘History’ folder. In addition, the ‘Private’ option also thwarts the websites from tracking the user’s visit to any site. So, if you are using Internet Explorer 8.0 with the ‘Private’ option on, it is even better than deleting cookies because this browser does not save any of them.

PLEASE NOTE: Nevertheless, it may be mentioned here that in the case of Internet Explorer 7.0 and Internet Explorer 5.x/ 6.x, the browsers will still retain the cookies index.dat files accumulating data regarding your Web surfing history. It is impossible to manually delete or erase the index.dat files in Internet Explorer 7.0 and Internet Explorer 5.x/ 6.x because the Windows use them all the time.

Erase Internet History – Warning
Do Not Pay For Any Program That Claims To Erase Your Internet History Until You Read This.
Privacy Software Reviews

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Hence, before we proceed to describe the procedure on how to delete the history of websites visited by an Internet surfer, it is pertinent to know a little about how the stored data or history may be a potential threat to the user as well as the different locations where the history is saved by the Internet Explorer. It is also important to know why the browser history needs to be deleted frequently or each time you use your computer.

Where the Browser History is Stored

Internet Explorer saves the Internet history or the records of the websites visited in different locations and these include:

• Address Bar records the list of the websites visited.
• AutoComplete saves the information you have typed on the Web.
• Search History
• Temporary Internet Files (TIF)
• Cookies
• Index.dat files

Browser History a Potential Privacy Threat

As the Web browser records all information regarding the websites visited by you, anyone who has entrée to your computer and hence the browser history will be able to learn all about your Web surfing activities – the sites visited by you, your searches on the Internet, files downloaded by you, images and videos seen by you and more such things. So, if you don’t want anyone, including your spouse, children, colleagues or boss, to know what you have been doing on your computer, you should regularly delete the browsing history from the hard drive. In addition, the files stored by the Web browser on different locations of the hard drive consume substantial space and slow down your Internet speed. Erasing the browser history also means you have a clean and spacious hard drive with appropriate Internet speed.

Delete History of Websites Visited

Erasing all records of your Internet activities or the history of the websites visited is simple and effortless. The process can be achieved both manually as well as using any special history eraser software. Here, we shall describe the manual procedure for different versions of Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer 7.0
In the event your Web browser is Internet Explorer 7.0, follow the following procedure to delete the history of the websites visited or the URLs in the Address Bar:

• Click on ‘Tools’ menu at the top of Windows.
• Next, select the ‘Internet Options’.
• Hit on the ‘General’ button.
• This will open the ‘Browsing History’ region, click on the ‘Delete’ tab here.
• Click on the ‘Delete History’ tab to erase the history of websites visited by you.
• Then click on the ‘Yes’ option.
• Complete the process by hitting on the ‘OK’ button.

Internet Explorer 5.x/ 6.x

If your Web browser is Internet Explorer 5.x/ 6.x follow the procedure mentioned below to delete the history of websites visited in your computer hard drive:

• Go to ‘Tools’ menu at the top of Windows and click on it.
• Next, hit on the ‘Internet Options’ in the drop-down list of ‘Tools’ menu.
• Click on the ‘General’ button.
• Then, click on the ‘Clear History’ tab.
• Complete the procedure by hitting on the ‘OK’ tab.

Wrapping Up

Before we conclude, it is pertinent to mention that even if you erase the history of the websites visited manually, the index.dat files in Internet Explorer still saves the data and will continue to display the URLs of the sites surfed by you. It is impossible to erase the index.dat files manually as these are continuously used by Windows.

In addition, you should bear in mind that the browser history is only a tiny portion of all the history of your Internet activities recorded by Internet Explorer in different locations of the computer hard drive. Hence, if you are careful and want to protect complete privacy and security of your Web browsing, you should also delete the history stored in Windows as well as other locations as mentioned above.

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Search History

All of us are aware of the fact that when we begin to type in a Google or Yahoo! search box, there appears a drop-down list comprising all searches you have ever typed. It is pointless to mention that your search history or ‘AutoComplete’ mechanically records all the searches you have made or the websites visited by you. This aspect is often helpful to the Internet user, but may also pose a serious threat to his or her privacy and security. A feature incorporated in your Web browser called AutoComplete is responsible for saving the list of all your searches or sites surfed by you. In fact, the AutoComplete History records anything and everything that you type in a Web page – including your name, e-mail id, logins, passwords, credit card numbers, address and the like. Hence, when someone else uses your computer and gives a search on any Web site, they are able to view all your Internet search activities threatening your privacy and security.

Types of Search History

Basically there are two types of search history and they include:

Browser Search History: The items automatically saved in the hard disk of your computer when you browse the Internet. These stored data facilitates accessing the previously visited Web pages faster as the Web browser doesn’t have to download them again.

Windows Search History: The search history automatically recorded by Windows in Windows Explorer. Windows search history may be viewed by anyone when he or she begins to type a new search in the search box.

Need to Erase Search History

There are two reasons why one needs to erase the search history from his or her computer hard drive. First, since the computer tracks and saves all Internet surfing activities of the user, it may pose as a security and privacy threat to them when someone else uses the same computer. They will be able to view all the search history of the original Internet user. Secondly, the storage of data relating to the Internet user’s browsing activities consumes significant space on the hard drive and slows down the Internet connectivity. In order to avoid both, it is necessary to delete the search history from time to time. This will keep your computer clean, safe and running up to speed.

How To Erase Search History

Erasing search history from a computer’s hard disk does not require much effort or time. The process may be undertaken manually or by using history eraser software. Here we will discuss the steps required for deleting search history manually in Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer 7.0
If your Web browser is IE 7.0, you may successfully delete all search history from your hard drive using the following procedure:

Erase Search History in Internet Explorer 5.x/ 6.x
Those using the Internet Explorer 5.x/ 6.x versions should follow the procedure explained below to manually delete search history from their computer hard drive.

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Passwords may be used for specific procedures like preventing reading, accessing or modifying any particular file. Every one of us has used the feature at some point and it may be said without any doubt that passwords are a wonderful means to have at your disposal to protect the privacy of your work.

Nevertheless, since these cached passwords are saved in the hard drive of the user’s computer, anyone with expertise in computer technology may perhaps access them posing a hazard to your privacy. In other words, these people may potentially use the stored password to the related websites or use specific software to acquire it. However, this should not pose a big problem for the Internet users as they may erase the cached passwords manually or with the help of any effective history eraser software.

Erase Passwords in Internet Explorer 7.0

Deleting passwords manually is a simple endeavor and you can do it often to free some space on your computer hard drive. In the event of using the Internet Explorer 7.0 version, you may manually erase the passwords by following the steps mentioned below:

• Go to the ‘Tools’ menu at the top of your IE browser and click on it.
• In the ‘Tools Menu’ you will find ‘Internet Options’, hit on the tab.
• Next, click on the ‘General’ button.
• This will display a number of options. You need to go to the ‘Browsing History’ part and hit on the ‘Delete’ tab.
• This will open the ‘Delete Browsing History’ window. Here you need to click on the ‘Delete Password’ tab.
• Next, hit on the ‘Yes’ button.
• Finally, to end the procedure, you need to click on the ‘Close’ tab and then on the ‘OK’ button.

Erase Passwords in Internet Explorer 5.x/ 6.x

If you are using IE 5.x or 6.x, you should follow the following steps:

• Select the ‘Tools’ menu at the top of your Web browser.
• This will open up a number of options, click on the ‘Internet Options’ tab.
• Next, you need to hit on the ‘Content’ button.
• Here, you will find the ‘AutoComplete’ option, click on it.
• Then, hit the ‘Clear Passwords’ tab to erase all stored passwords on the hard drive.

Editor’s Note:

If manually clearing you passwords in a little to technical for you. Fear Not!  Their is software that can automattically do this for you.  Read our reviews of the top automatic internet history erasing software here.

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