IE6 history not completely deleting

[VicM]

Hi,
I wanted to clear my IE history, so I did used the IE Tools menu and clicked on Clear History.

However, when I begin typing a URL, for instance,

http://www.a,

the browser will display two items, such as

http://www.apple.com

and another URL beginning with a.

I have tried searching the registry and my entire harddrive for the sites being displayed in the address bar dropdown, but came up empty.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? And does anyone know of a way to remove those pesky remnants?

My OS is XP Pro.

Thanks,
Vic

 

[Bremer]

I had this issue as well. It's not in the history; it's in the "guess what i'm probably going to type next" settings. I don't remember exactly where, but this should send you in the right direction.

 

[VicM]

Thanks for the response Bremer.

I would have thought that those items would be stored in the registry somewhere. However, as I mentioned, I did a search on the entire registry and found nothing.

And I also did a search on the entire harddrive, also coming up emptyhanded.

At this point I don't know where else to look.

Vic

 

[JohnOB]

Open Internet Explorer and select Tools > Internet Options and click the 'Content' tab. At the bottom of this window there is a button that says 'Autocomplete' click on this.

You can then hit the Clear Forms button on this page, this will delete the history of URLs which appear as you type. However, note that it will also delete the history in other forms, such as Search windows in search engines and other forms which you may fill out.

Or you may simply wish to stop the computer from using autocomplete for certain fields, so it will not populate as you start to type.You can control this using the 'Use Auto Complete for' check boxes which appear at the top of the Autocomplete window

Hope this helps

"Stupid isn't not knowing the answer, it's not asking the question

 

[VicM]

JohnOB,

Thanks for your suggestion.

I had already tried that approach (sorry I didn't mention it in the original post). Unfortunately, that did not work either.

Unselecting Web addresses in the AutoComplete section of course will require typing in all web addresses in full. It does not remove those pesky entries because when I reinstate the Web addresses AutoComplete, they are still there.

Those entries must be stored somewhere, but as of now I can not locate them.

Is it possible they are encoded either in the registry or in a file? (Don't know why that would be necessary.)

Vic

 

[JohnOB]

Hmm, well I have deleted the list of previously entered URLS before, I had to do this in the Registry, however I found that whilst the registry appeared as though it would let me delete individual entries, as soon as I deleted one it seemed to delete them all.

This can be done in the registry by going to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Internet Explorer > TypedURLs

Instead of deleting I have actually managed to change the values to other web sites, because as I said in my experience deleting only one of these entries actually deleted all previously typed addresses, but I am not sure if this would stop them appearing in the list as you typed them, and also I don't want to tell you to go and do anything in your registry without telling you I am not responsible for any damage you cause


"Stupid isn't not knowing the answer, it's not asking the question

 

[IllogicallyLogical]

Try clearing the history in Safe Mode.

Joey
A+, Network+, MCP

 

[VicM]

JohnOB,

The TypedURLs registry entry is empty.

As to your deleting one and others disappeared, that might have to do with which one you deleted. If you deleted the entry for url1 then all others would not show in the history.

When deleting an entry or entries, you need to renumber the names of the entries to be contiguous and must start with url1.

For example if you have 5 entries, url1 thru url5 and you delete url1, you must rename url2 thru url5 as url1 thru url4.
------------------

IllogicallyLogical,

Thanks for your suggestion.

I tried deleting the history in SafeMode, but that did not work either. Again, as I've said, there are NO entries in the registry under TypedURLs. But these 2 entries appear when starting to type a url beginning with their first letter.

While this is not an Earth shattering situation. I now feel like the lion with a thorn in its paw and waiting for my Androcles to show up. I think I'm becomming obsessive. LOL

Vic

 

[IllogicallyLogical]

You could try CCleaner.

http://www.ccleaner.com/

Joey
A+, Network+, MCP

 

[IllogicallyLogical]

CCleaner is an excellent tool for computer cleanup and fixing registry problems. Select the options to purge your IE caches.

Joey
A+, Network+, MCP

 

[VicM]

IllogicallyLogical,

Once again, thanks for your suggestion.

Ran CCleaner, but unfortunately those 2 items are still there.

Do I need to uninstall IE6 and reinstall with all updates?(Not ready to install IE7 just yet.)

Vic

 

[VicM]

Folks,

I was unable to locate the offending urls on my own but found a utility on the Net which did the trick.

It's called PurgeIE and a 15 day trial can be found on their website

http://www.purgeie.com.

Hope this helps others.

Vic

 

[IllogicallyLogical]

Did it show you the path where they were being stored?

Joey
A+, Network+, MCP

 

[VicM]

Joey,

Unfortunately, no I don't know where they were being stored.

However, one of the files that was accessed was the HISTORY.IE5 file in the \LOCAL SETTINGS\HISTORY folder of the user's DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS folder.

I thought I looked in that file, but may have missed it since those files are binary and data may have been in Unicode or encrypted somehow.

Also I don't know why and IE5 file is used for IE6. Who knows, the rocket scientists over at M$ have been known to be less than forthcomming about those things. LOL

Vic