clearing windows history?

August 10, 2005 12:20 PM

After having problems clearing my history (windows 2000) I googled some info and found it to be a common problem, but still can't clear the history with the found tips...

I tried closing all running programs and clearing history through the contol panel, and I downloaded a shareware program (Free Internet Eraser), but the only reliable way to clear the history is to manually delete every single entry, any recommendations?

posted by skinnydipp to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Are you spyware free?
posted by jikel_morten at 12:22 PM on August 10, 2005

What history are you talking about? Browser history? Switch to Firefox, it has a preferences button you can click to wipe out all traces of sites browsed, cookies stored, etc.
posted by autojack at 12:36 PM on August 10, 2005

Yes browser history in explorer, and spyware free.
posted by skinnydipp at 12:45 PM on August 10, 2005

Delete your index.dat files. Info here.

I have the problem that no history shows up except for in the most visited view (someday I'll have to post an AskMe about it). It was one of the factors which drove me to Firefox. Deleting the index.dat files (there are more than one) takes care of it. Clear your cache as well. Even if Explorer deletes the history, the index.dat files still contain the old entries, that is until you delete the index.dat files. Windows will automatically give you new clean ones after the deletion.
posted by caddis at 12:57 PM on August 10, 2005

"Crap Cleaner" You'll love that program...and it's free!

Also, for God's sakes, man, quit using IE and get Firefox already.
posted by SparkyPine at 1:35 PM on August 10, 2005

http://www.ccleaner.com/

Guess I should have looked at the "Live Preview" here, forgot to properly link to the site.
posted by SparkyPine at 1:36 PM on August 10, 2005