Before knowing the steps to erase Internet history from your PC, you should know what browsing histories and temporary files are all about. To begin with, browsing histories are the trails of web pages that you have visited. On the other hand, temporary files are nothing but cache files. These can be some pictures that your browser has stored to let you access them again without difficulty.

If you are using Internet Explorer, you can erase your Internet history by choosing the “Internet Options” from the Tools menu at first. Next, click on the “General” tab when the Internet Options window pops up. For wiping out cached files, choose the “Delete” button in the Browsing section. A window will appear where you will find several sections like Form Data, Passwords, Cookies, Temporary Internet Files and History. For erasing some selected files, click the corresponding buttons that you notice in this section. However, to erase your entire Internet history using a single click, select the “Clear History
” or “Delete All” button located at the lower part of your browser window.

If Firefox is your preferred browser, open the drop down box by selecting “Tools” and afterward click on “Clear Private Data”. The window that pops up will have different sections like Browsing History, Saved Passwords, Cookies, Search History and Saved Form. Check the corresponding boxes from this segment for erasing chosen items. However, to erase your Internet history totally, click the button labeled “Clear Private Data Now”.

Users of AOL (America Online) browser need to locate the “Settings” button at their browser window’s top section. They will need to click on it at first and then go for “Preferences”. The next step is to select “toolbar and sounds” and subsequently click the button marked “clear history trail now
” to get their Internet history deleted from the PC.

To safeguard your privacy totally, you should also remove any third party applications that are installed on your computer. As these applications store passwords, text, images and some other sensitive statistics in your hard drive, not deleting them will make your browsing habits vulnerable to be known by your wife who uses the same PC.

If you are still unsure whether you need to clear all Internet history or not, read about the following top 10 reasons why you should not hesitate about wiping off the details about your browsing habits:

·If you have been surfing online while at work, it may be detrimental to your career if your boss finds out about your online escapades.

·If you have the habit of using a computer shared by others for accessing sensitive information like your bank account details etc, your friends or co-workers may misuse such information if they are able to lay their hands on such sensitive data.

·If you do not want to compromise your image of a good partner, you need to keep the details of some sites visited by you (especially, the porn sites) away from your spouse.

·As your computer saves a list of sites that you have visited, you may want to wipe out such details and not allow your kids (who have access to the computer) to know what their parent had been doing online.

·Apart from cluttering your hard disk, Internet cache (temporary Internet files
) stored on your computer can be a potential threat to your privacy. So, you need to erase such files.

·When your computer saves Internet cookies during your browsing session, you need to erase them before closing your browser window or keep the chance of getting your browsing habits exposed.

·If you are working on some confidential matters that need the use of Internet, such information may be known to all if you forget to delete your Internet history.

·When you download some files and documents from the Internet, you should erase the traces lest they fall into the wrong hands.

·As a list of files and documents recently opened by you is stored by Windows, you need to take care of such records related to downloaded files and documents. Otherwise, any person who can access your computer can view this list and directly connect to such items opened by you.

·Each time you open or save a file (general or downloaded), a record of this activity is kept by the Windows. Unless you delete such records, your privacy may be violated.

So, clear all Internet histor and safeguard your online browsing habits.

Once you have understood the need to delete search history, the next step is to perform the action. Here are some tips that will make your task easier. If you are using Internet Explorer 7, follow these steps to delete your search history:

· Select “Tools” and then choose “Internet Options”.
· Next, choose the tab marked “General”.
· Click the “Delete” button that can be seen under “Browsing history” region.
· To delete Address bar history (the list of web sites visited by you), select “Delete history” and then click on the button marked “Yes”.

Users of Firefox can delete search history with the help of the following steps:

· Select in succession “Tools”, “Options” and “Privacy”.
· Go to the Private area and opt for “Clear Now”.
· In the window marked “Clear Private Data”, check “Browsing history” and select “Clear Private Data Now”.
· Finally, click OK.

If users of AOL browser want to delete search history, the following guideline can help them perform the task:

· Locate the “Settings” button at the top part of the AOL window.
· Click on this “Settings” button.
· Next, you should choose “Preferences” and then select “Toolbar and Sounds”.
· Finally, click the button marked “Clear history trail now”.

Opera users can delete the history of visited sites by performing these steps:

· Go to the “Tools” menu.
· Choose “Delete Private Data”.
· Click the button marked “Details”.
· Select “Clear history of visited links”.
· Click the “Delete” button.

If Netscape browser is your preferred choice, you can delete search history by clicking the menu marked “Edit” and then selecting “Preferences” and “History” in succession. At the final stage, you will need to click on the button labeled “Clear History”. This will erase the data stored in your computer that can expose your browsing habits.

Irrespective of whatever browser you use, it is important to delete search history. If you don’t do this, your privacy as well as security may get seriously compromised. So, in order to safeguard the details of what you have doing online and prohibit such information from falling into the wrong hands, always delete search history.