How to Manually Delete URLs From the IE Address Bar Via Your Registry

When you type a website's address into the Internet Explorer's address bar, this URL is automatically saved into Internet Explorer's history. This web address will also show up in the drop-down list the Explorer's address bar. For safety and security purposes, it is recommended that you frequently delete these saved entries. One way to delete these saved entries is to clear Internet Explorer's history. You may also disable the feature altogether when you disable the AutoComplete feature (Internet Options >> Content). If, however, you want to manually delete specific entries rather than the entire list from the Internet Explorer address bar, you can edit your registry to get this done. Read on to learn how to manually edit your registry to get rid of the URLs that are saved when you type them into Internet Explorer's address bar.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Click on the "Start" button in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen. Click on "Run." In the pop-up window that appears, type in "regedit" and then click "OK." This will open the registry editor.
2. Navigate through the registry to find this registry entry: HKEY_CURRENTUSERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerTyped URLs. You may need to click on the plus signs that are next to each each corresponding section. Open this registry entry.
3. Read through the list of individual keys that you will find listed.
   => In the Name column, you will see URL 1, URL 2, URL 3, URL 4...
   => In the Data column, you should see the corresponding URLs (for example, www.house.com, www.home.com).
4. Delete each individual URL by right-clicking on it in the Name column and then clicking "Delete." Once you are done deleting the URLs that you do not want, close the registry editor. Now, when you open your Internet Explorer, the unwanted URLs will be gone from the drop-down list.

Tips & Warnings

• If you would prefer not to use your Registry Editor to get rid of unwanted URLs, there are a number of free and commercial applications that you can use. EditURLs, for example, is a free browser utility that you can use to edit or remove individual web addresses from Internet Explorer's address bar. Another one is IE Address Bar Editor, although this one is not quite as easy to use as EditURLs.
• If you have FireFox, just click the arrow by the address bar to drop down the list of URLs, and then highlight the particular URL you want to delete, then press down the "Ctrl + Delete" button to remove the URL.