Imagine, you are in the middle of an RND (research and discovery) process and suddenly due to some technical problem your pc shuts down. Or maybe, you browsed something the previous day and you forgot what you were reading. Or, you could have kids at home who unknowingly closed the tabs that you had kept open.
In such cases, you don’t have to panic. Because you can always reload the page that you were going through by simply checking the browser history. This will save so much time and effort. What a boon right?
Well, not always. Multiple people sharing a pc isn’t uncommon. And while sharing a pc another person can simply go and check your browser history to know your activity. And at times you might need privacy.
Maybe you want to surprise a family member and don’t want them to know what you bought for them. Or you could have googled a silly doubt and you don’t want people to judge you. There are many more reasons why a person would want to hide their browser history. In such cases, deleting the browser would be the best solution.
Let’s see how to delete cache and history in laptop if different browsers are used.
Browsing Data On Your Laptop
If you have turned on the sync option in your pc, all browser Data will be stored in it. However, if you wish to delete browser Data from your pc then you will have to make sure that sync is turned off. Synced Data will be deleted across all devices.
Steps To Clear Data In Microsoft Edge
Navigate to settings and more option. Once you click the settings option, you will see Privacy, search and services option, click on that. In the Clear Browsing Data option, click on Choose what to clear. From the drop-down menu choose a time range. Choose the type of Data that you want to delete. Lastly, click on Clear now.
Browsing Data From The Cloud
From the privacy dashboard, you can manage and delete Data. But be aware that the Data that you clear from the privacy dashboard will still be available on your device.
Browsing Data From Internet Explorer
You can use Microsoft Edge to clear Internet Explorer browsing Data. By clearing browsing Data from internet explorer, your Data from other browsers will remain as it is.
Navigate to settings and more option. Once you click the settings option, you will see Privacy, search and services option, click on that.
Choose what to clear from clear browsing Data for internet explorer.
Select the types of Data that needs to be deleted.
Select delete.
You can also delete history from the favorites menu. Click the star at the upper right corner. There you will see the sites that you recently visited. Right-click on the Data that you want to delete and delete the specific history that you want to hide.
Google Chrome
Open google chrome. On the top right corner, you will three-dot menu, click on it. Select more tools and clear browsing Data. And a dialog box will open.
There is another way to delete your browser history. Navigating to myactivity.google.com will direct you towards the history page.
Click on the web app and activity. You can turn on Auto-delete and google will automatically delete Data within the selected time range.
Opera
Open Opera. Check the navigation bar towards the left. Click on the clock icon to open browser history. A Clear browsing Data option will be visible. This is quite similar to chrome. But in Opera, you can be assured of a bit extra safety via VIP option. It is also found in the privacy and security settings.
Safari
In macOS devices, Safari is the king. In safari clearing your website history is simple.
Navigate to the history tab in your laptop
And select clear history as given in the application.
Then you will see options like the last hour, today, today and yesterday and all history. Select the time range from when you want to delete the history.
This not only deleted your browser history. But also deletes cookies and cache of your laptop.
So, you can click on history and then show all history. Then you can delete individual sites that you want to remove from the history.
Mozilla Firefox
Open Mozilla Firefox. In the hamburger menu, under the options section click on privacy and security. Scroll down and you will see the history option, select it.
You can change your Firefox settings to remember, to never remember or customize settings to remember cookies but delete the history. There will be a Clear History option, click it. Choose a time frame for deleting Data and choose which Data to delete.
Don’t forget to check whether you have kept sync on. In case sync is turned on then the Data will be saved in other devices logged in with the same account.
Many a time when we open an unknown website a notification pops up asking to allow cookies. However friendly these cookies may look we never know the risks in them. There is a risk of hacking. So, you might want to delete unwanted cookies.
Clearing history will prevent websites from tracking your activity. Yes, websites track your activity to know your interests.
If there are too many cookies accumulated then your browser may become slow.
So, it is always a good idea to clear your browser history and cache regularly.
Bottom-Line
The Internet, however helpful it is, sometimes it may prove to be a real threat to privacy. Internet piracies are not uncommon these days.
Protecting your Data is your responsibility. There are many ways by which you can keep your Data safe. Deleting your history and cache is one of the easiest methods.
With these tiny responsible actions, you can keep be safe from unwanted threats.
Now that you’ve seen different methods to delete browser history, cache and cookies in different browsers, you can regularly delete your history and keep your Data safe.