IE History 2

[Leenie]

Good morning. Even though I have the history set to save for 0 days, all the sites I've visited show up in the address bar drop down list. How do I get them to not save there? Thanks very much.

Colleen Gayle Lane
Milton Public Library

 

[BMcAnly]

Firefox seems to have a better history wiping ability than IE, so you can try that. Also Ccleaner is a good utility for wiping not only browser history, but also other junk files as well.

 

[Leenie]

Yeah, I love firefox for that reason and others, but I still need IE to get rid of the list of typed urls. I think older version of TweakUI used to take care of it for me, but I cannot find such a setting in latest version besides there is no tweakui for Vista. I will look into ccleaner. Thanks.

Colleen Gayle Lane
Milton Public Library

 

[smah]

The list of urls that displays in IE's address bar is an autocomplete function, not history. You can find the Autocomplete settings on the Content tab of Internet Options.

 

[Leenie]

No, it's not the autocomplete. I have that turned off. It's the typed urls that are in the drop down list when you click the arrow at the right of the address/location bar. I know I can delete them manually under Tools, Delete browsing history, but I wish there was a setting like in Firefox for them to delete every time you exit the browser.

Colleen Gayle Lane
Milton Public Library

 

[smah]

The typed urls are stored in the Windows Registry. I suppose that you could make a batch file to delete all the values (except default). Alternatively, you could delete the entire key & replace it with a blank one that was previously saved with no values.

The registry key is at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs

Be very careful if you start modifying the registry.

 

[RexxSysProg]

Thanks smah (and a star). I was about to post the question when I saw it was here and your answer. Clearing the registry works but it looks like it has to be done manually every day. Any way to automate it?

 

[Leenie]

That's exactly what I want to know too.

Colleen Gayle Lane
Milton Public Library

 

[smah]

I was aluding automation posibilities earlier. There are a number of ways, including something like:

Manually clear out the entries so that you have a 'blank' registry key. Right-click & export it to a convienient location with a convienient name: cleared-autocomplete.reg (or something similar).

Create a batch file that will: 1) delete the existing key 2) merge your previously saved 'blank' key.
See

http://www.robvanderwoude.com/regedit.html

for references.

Use task scheduler, group policy or any other suitable tool to run the batch file whenever you choose.

 

[Leenie]

The thing is I want my typed urls to be gone every time I exit IE so that the next time anyone goes into IE they are not showing. Not sure how to set up a batch file to do that.

Colleen Gayle Lane
Milton Public Library

 

[smah]

The only thing that I can think of is to start IE from the batch file itself using the 'wait' switch. This wouldn't work if IE was started from a url hyperlink in an e-mail message or a desktop hyper link, or ...... Also the command prompt for the batch file would stay open.

REM batch file concept
REM to start IE & dump autocomplete afterward
@echo off
:: start IE with the wait switch
start /w iexplorer.exe
:: remove the autocomplete registry key
REGEDIT.EXE delete-autocomplete.reg
:: merge the clean, blank autocomplete registry key
REGEDIT.EXE cleard-autocomplete.reg
exit

Or you could train yourself to manually run the clearing batch file when your done with IE. Or manually run ccleaner (or similar third party utility) when you're done with IE. I don't know of any automated way to do it upon closing of the last open IE window.

 

[Leenie]

I think I will just stick with Firefox. Thanks, though.

Colleen Gayle Lane
Milton Public Library

 

[fdalmoro]

Hey guys, the best workaround to this that I found was the following:

1. Start up Regedit and go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs

2. Delete any urls that are in there to clear your history.

3. Right click on TypedURLs key and go to Permissions.

4. Explicitly Deny Full your account from that key.(You can change this back later on if you want so no worries.)

Start up IE and test. You'll see the history while you're in IE but it will be gone every time you start up IE.

Hope it helps, Fernando

 

[Leenie]

That worked PERFECTLY! Thank you very much.

Colleen Gayle Lane
Milton Public Library

 

[gigahertz]

This script will also resolve that issue:

Dim WshShell
Set WshShell=Wscript.CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")

WshShell.Run """C:\Program WshShell.Run ""RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 8""

WshShell.Run ""RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 1""