Give your browser an amnesia

Archived Articles, General

Question: How do I clear the forms and passwords in Internet Explorer 5 through 6? —Van L.

Answer:IE, by default, remembers everything you type into a form on a web page. This is not always a good idea especially if what you type in is an account or credit card number. If you type dubious search terms into a search engine, these will be available to anyone who uses the same search engine on the computer through Internet Explorer.

The browser keeps a list of everything you have ever typed into one of these fields and as soon as you go to type a new item into form, it lists entries you have typed before in a pulldown box. To clear these items do the following:

  1. Open Internet Explorer.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options, then click the Content tab.
  3. Next, choose the AutoComplete button.
  4. Check Clear Forms and/or Clear Passwords to clear all saved items from the AutoComplete history.
  5. Click OK a couple of times to exit.

To clear individual items from the list of form or password suggestions, click the item in the list of suggestions for that field and then press DELETE on your keyboard.

To clear your AutoComplete history for web addresses, do this:

  1. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
  2. Click the General tab.
  3. Click Clear History, and then click OK.

If this doesn’t work, try our article Autocomplete won’t clear? Here’s how to fix that bug quick.

There are several good resources on the Web for more information about AutoComplete and clearing your web browser of data. If some of this doesn’t make any sense when you look at your browser, you might need to upgrade it.

You can tell what version you have by clicking Help in the text menu across the top of your browser, then About. Upgrade your browser by going to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ and download a newer version. ZDNet has an in-depth article about autocomplete for Windows NT users. See: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=217148.

Microsoft’s knowledge base has a good overview for Windows 95/98/ME: See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/217148/en-us.

If after reading all of this you want a simple easy to use product that does most of what was just mentioned above, in one click, I recommend Evidence Eliminator.