Delete Your Auto Complete history

Share

Deleting Your AutoComplete History

You may have noticed that when you type a search into a web site search box (such as Google or Yahoo!), a list of previously searched for terms are displayed. These previous searches are not saved by any web site, but are actually saved by your web browser through a feature called AutoComplete.

According to Microsoft: “Internet Explorer includes a feature called AutoComplete that keeps track of information that you’ve recently typed, such as Web site addresses, information in forms, and search queries. As you type new information, AutoComplete tries to anticipate what you are typing and offers possible matches.”

Unless deleted or turned off, the AutoComplete function of your browser stores all your web searches so that it can “help” you by offering dropdowns to prior searches when you start to type in a search box – at sites like Google, Yahoo, etc.

How to Delete Your AutoComplete History

To manually delete AutoComplete history, you can perform the following steps:

Internet Explorer 7:

Open Internet Explorer

From the Tools menu, select Internet Options

Choose the tab labeled General

Under Browser History, select Delete

Next to Form data, choose Delete forms…

Click Yes

Internet Explorer 6:

Open Internet Explorer

From the Tools menu, select Internet Options

Choose the tab labeled Content

Under Personal Information, select Autocomplete

Select Clear Forms

Click Yes

Firefox:

Open Firefox

From the Tools menu, select Options

Choose the tab labeled Privacy

Select Clear now…

Put checkmark next to the box labeled Saved Form and Search History

Click Clear Private Data Now

For steps on how to stop your browser from recording this information, please see: Turning Off AutoComplete.