How
to Keep Others From Knowing You Were Here
Information from
National Domestic Violence Hotline website.
After you have read
these instructions and understand what to do, please close your
internet browser. Restart your browser and follow these instructions
to clear your cache. Make sure that you are not currently on the
Domestic Abuse Shelter website.
Clearing the Internet Explorer
History File
Internet Explorer
4.0 and above on a PC
- Select "Internet Options" under the "View" or "Tools" option
(depending on the version you are running) on the toolbar.
- Under the "General" folder under "Internet Options",
there is a section called "History". Change the "Days
to keep pages in History:" to 0 and click the "Clear
History" button.
- Click "Apply" at the bottom of the "Internet Options" box,
then click "OK".
- To double check that everything is cleared, click the "History" button
on the web browser toolbar - it should be empty. Also, click the
arrow on the right of the URL Address box - it should be empty
as well.
Internet Explorer
4.0 and above for Macintosh
Instructions for
clearing cache
- In Internet Explorer 4 or above, open the "Edit" menu,
and then click on "Preferences".
- Double click on "Web Browser" until the list drops
down.
- Select "Advanced".
- You will see a box called "Cache", and click on the "Empty
Now" button.
- Click "OK", then Quit from Internet Explorer and restart
your computer if you need to.
Clearing the Netscape History
File
Netscape Navigator
- From the "Options" menu, select "General Preferences" and
then the "Appearance" tab.
- Click "Expire Now" to immediately clear the history
file.
Netscape Communicator
- From the "Edit" menu, select "Preferences" then
the Navigator category in the list along the left side of the window.
- Click on "Expire Now" to immediately clear the history
file.
With Netscape closed,
search your computer for the history file and delete it. The next time
you open the browser, the file will be recreated.
- For Windows (all versions), the file is called netscape.hst
- For Macintosh, the file is called global history
- For Unix (all versions), the file is called history.dat
Clearing the Location (Netsite)
Toolbar drop-down menu
If you do not know
which version of Netscape Navigator or Communicator you are running,
under the "Help" menu, click on "About Communicator", "About
Navigator", or "About Netscape" (the entry will
differ depending on which version you have). The first line of
the resulting screen will tell you the version number.
Operating Systems:
Windows 95, 98 or NT 4.0
Product Version: Navigator 2.0 - 3.04
Only the last 10
URLs you typed into the Location Bar text field will be listed.
Since only the last entries you typed are stored, the easiest method
of clearing unwanted entries is to type a number of URLs to displace
those currently listed.
In order to completely
clear all URLs:
The following instructions
require editing the Windows Registry. This can potentially harm
the system if the wrong entries are edited or deleted. Make sure
you have current backups of your system before proceeding. Consult
Windows help if needed.
- Close Navigator.
- From the Windows Start menu, select Run..., type: regedit.exe
(in Windows 95 and 98) or regedt32.exe (in Windows NT 4.0), and
press ENTER.
- Click the plus sign beside the following: hierarchy:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
-Software
-Netscape Navigator
- Select "URL History" on the left.
- On the right, clear each entry. In order to do this, double-click
in the Name column of a line, then delete whatever appears in the
Value data field of the dialog box; click OK to save the changes.
Repeat this for each line.
- Exit the registry editor by clicking Regedit|Exit.
If this does not
work, it is possible that the Windows 3.1 version of Navigator
is installed. In that case, try using the Windows 3.1 version of
Navigator instructions to clear the URL history.
Operating Systems:
Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0
Product Version: Communicator 4.0 - 4.05
Only the last 15
URLs you typed into the Location Bar text field will be listed.
Since only the last entries you typed are stored, the easiest method
of clearing unwanted entries is to type a number of URLs to displace
those currently listed.
In order to completely
clear all URLs:
Clearing the location
bar URL history involves editing a Netscape data file. Editing
this file incorrectly could prevent Communicator from launching
or working properly. Before you edit the file, make a backup copy
of it.
- On your hard drive, go to your Communicator profile folder. If
you have installed in the default location, it is likely here:
C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\{Your_Profile_Name}\.
- Find the prefs.js file.
- Copy this file to a safe location on a floppy disk or elsewhere
on your hard drive.
After making a copy
of the file, you can edit the original:
- Close Communicator.
- Open a text editor such as Windows Notepad. If you have not edited
your Windows 95 Start menu, you should be able to open Notepad
by clicking on
Start|Programs|Accessories|Notepad.
- In Notepad, click File|Open and browse to the prefs.js file.
Open the prefs.js file.
- Look for lines which look like this:
user_pref("browser.url_history.URL_4", "http://help.netscape.com/");
user_pref("browser.url_history.URL_5", "developer.netscape.com/");
user_pref("browser.url_histort.URL_6", "ftp://ftp.netscape.com/");
- Delete only the lines which begin with "user_pref("browser.url_history.URL".
- When you have successfully deleted these lines, make sure you
have left no spaces between lines, and the save the file by clicking
File|Save As.
- Save as "prefs.js". Open Communicator and the entries
should be gone.
Operating Systems:
Windows (all versions)
Product Version: Communicator 4.06 - 4.7
- Open Communicator.
- From the Edit menu, select "Preferences".
- Click on "Navigator" on the left so it is selected.
- On the right, click the "Clear Location Bar" button.
- Click OK.
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