If you share a computer in a home office and don’t offer each person their own account, if you fail to log off or use a password protected screen saver when you are away from your computer, or, if use a computer to access the Internet from a public area like a foyer, waiting area, kiosk, or similar open place, you need to know how to delete your Internet footprint. If you don’t, people (even those with very little knowledge of such things) can easily see what web sites you've recently visited, access saved passwords or form data, or view your temporary Internet files. To
stay safe in a public area, you'll want to use a new feature called Delete Browsing History.
Delete Browsing History lets you delete the following files with only a few clicks of the mouse:
- Temporary Internet Files: Files that have been downloaded and saved in your Temporary Internet Files folder. Anyone with access to your PC can go through these files to see what you've been doing online.
- Cookies: Text files that include data that identifies your preferences when you visit to particular Web sites. If someone accesses your PC to go to say, www.amazon.com, they’ll be greeted with your preferences. While this may seem harmless, consider cookies that may be on your computer from places you’d rather not have others know about!
- History: A list of Web sites you've visited recently. Anyone can look at your History list to see where you've been.
- Form data: Information that's been saved using the Internet Explorer's autocomplete form data functionality. If you don't want forms to be filled out automatically by you or someone else who has access to your PC and user account, delete this.
- Passwords: Passwords that were saved using Internet Explorer autocomplete password prompts.
To clear your history:
1. In IE7, click the Tools icon.
2. Click Delete Browsing History. [See Image 1]
3. For each item, click the Delete button. [See Image 2]
4. Click Close when finished.