Contents
- 1 How to Delete Your Browser History on Google Chrome
- 2 How to Clear Your Browser History on Microsoft Edge
- 3 How to Clear Your Browsing History in Firefox
- 4 How to Delete Your Opera Browser History
- 5 Extra: How to Turn on Caret Browsing in Your Browser
- 6 Extra: How to Enable or Disable Your Browser's PDF Viewer
If you share a computer, there are instances where you may not want another person to see the websites you've been visiting. We aren't going to ask why, but we will show you how to delete your browsing history in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera so you can hide your activity.
A word of warning, though. Deleting your browsing history does not completely remove any traces of the websites you have visited. These may still be logged by your internet service provider. Google may also save your searches and it's possible there's still some metadata and other information tucked away in the deep recesses of your file system.
Still, if you're sharing your PC with a non-technical user, clearing your browsing history should be enough to ensure they'll never be aware of your shady deeds. Here's how to clear your browsing history on each of the most popular browsers:
How to Delete Your Browser History on Google Chrome
You can clear your Chrome history in a grand total of four clicks. Here's how:
- Press the three dots in the top-right corner, then click “More tools > Clear browsing data…”
- Choose what you want to delete and press “Clear data”
The time range dropdown will let you change the period from which you want to delete your history. These include the past hour, past 24 hours, past 7 days, past 4 weeks, and all time.
You can also choose whether you just want to delete your history, or also your cookies, site data, and cached images/files.
How to Clear Your Browser History on Microsoft Edge
Clearing your browsing history is a bit less intuitive in Edge than it is in Chrome. Still, it's pretty easy to do once you know how:
- Press the three dots in the top-right and click “Settings”
- Select “Privacy, search, and services in the settings sidebar and press “Choose what to clear” in the main pane
- Select the time range to clear your history from
These include the past hour, past 24 hours, past 7 days, past 4 weeks, and all time.
- Choose what you want to delete and press “Clear now”
Edge lets you choose whether you want to remove not just your browsing history, but your download history, cookies, and cached images/files.
How to Clear Your Browsing History in Firefox
Firefox offers two ways to delete your browsing history, both of which we'll cover today:
- Option 1: Press the hamburger menu and click “History”
- Press “Clear recent history…”
- Select the time range and tick what to delete, then press “OK”
Firefox will clear your history immediately.
- Option 2: Press the hamburger icon and then “Manage history”
- Select the pages you want to remove, right-click and press “Delete Pages”
How to Delete Your Opera Browser History
The process to clear browsing history in Opera is more similar to Edge:
- Click the settings bars in the top right and press “Go to full browser settings”
- Click on “Clear browsing data”
- Select the time range and what you'd like to delete and click “Clear data”
That closes out this tutorial, but if you'd like to learn about more options in your browser, give one of the guides below a read:
Extra: How to Turn on Caret Browsing in Your Browser
Caret browsing lets you navigate your browser with your keyboard, which can be helpful in a variety of circumstances. Follow our guide on how to enable caret browsing to find out how to turn it on in your browser.
Extra: How to Enable or Disable Your Browser's PDF Viewer
Finally, feel free to try our tutorial on how to enable or disable the PDF viewer in your browser. It could increase your security or save you time.
