Why Is Internet Explorer Automatically Erasing My History Settings?

Internet Explorer is a popular Web browser.

Internet Explorer can be configured to automatically delete history settings. If your Internet Explorer Web browser is automatically deleting your Web history, this may be because it came configured to automatically delete history or because someone configured it to automatically delete history settings.

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer is a Web browser created by Microsoft. As of August 2011, the most current version of Internet Explorer is Internet Explorer 9. The first version of Internet Explorer was released in 1995 and older versions of Internet Explorer may not allow for automatic history deletion.

Internet History

Your internet history is a listing of all websites you've visited as well as saved images, HTML code and other materials from those websites. Your history is saved in a typical list format while the materials from websites you've visited are typically stored in an Internet Explorer program folder.

Automatic Deletion

Internet Explorer automatically deletes the HTML code, saved images and other materials from websites you've visited to avoid using too much of your computer hard drive space. In addition, you can configure Internet Explorer to delete your computer history and other saved files every time you close the program. By default, the most recent version of Internet Explorer will delete your history within 20 days of viewing a website.

Changing Settings

To change your history deletion settings you will need to open Internet Explorer and go to the "Tools" menu. Under the Tools menu, select the "Internet Options" button. Select the "Settings" button under Browsing History. In the Browsing History menu you will have the option to select how often and when your browsing history and cached files are deleted.

References

• Samanathon; Delete Internet Explorer 7's Browsing History Automatically When It Closes; Saman Sadeghi; April 2007
• Microsoft; How to Clear the History Entries in Internet Explorer; July 2010
• Microsoft: Clear the History of Websites You've Visited
• Tech Scientist: How to Automatically Delete Internet History and All Files on Exit

Resources

• Microsoft; How to Delete Cookie Files in Internet Explorer; July 2011
• Computer Hope: How Do I Clear My Internet Browser History?
• Softpedia: Automatically Delete Browser History For Internet Explorer and Firefox Software 7.0
• Petri; Delete Internet Explorer Address Bar History; Daniel Petri; January 2009