Once you check out a website, it is easy to go to other pages of a site if you are interested or check out a totally new site. Fast forward a couple of hours and you might find yourself losing track of all the sites you went to. It can be useful to backtrack especially if you forgot to bookmark some sites you like. Just about all Web browsers have a “History” section where you can see what sites you visited and when so you can bookmark them. Once you made the bookmarks, you probably won’t need those history entries. Depending on your browser’s settings history entries disappear after a set number of days. But if other people are using your system, they might find out what sites you have went to if they check your history. Not everyone likes the idea of others knowing that information which is why clearing your browser’s history manually is a good idea. Since each browser has its own history, use CCleaner so you can cover your tracks in all browsers using a single application.
- Visit Piriform’s website. The website should feature the CCleaner tool since most people go there to get it. Find the download link so you can get the latest version and install it. Installation is pretty straightforward. Once you finished the installation, run the CCleaner from your desktop or Start menu to see the main CCleaner window.
- Click the “Cleaner” icon from the left sidebar to see all the different stuff you can clear. Your main focus here is the “History” sections of every browser so make sure you uncheck all of the items so you won’t delete anything by accident. Don’t forget that there is an “Applications” tab that has more checkboxes so clear those as well. Once you are finished, go back to the “Windows” tab and check the “History” box under Internet Explorer.
- To see the options for other third-party browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Opera, click the “Applications” tab. You should see the icons belong to their respective browsers so they are difficult to miss. Check the “Internet History” or “History” checkboxes underneath the browsers you wish to have their history sections cleared.
- Once you checked all the items, nothing will happen until you click the “Run Cleaner” button. If you want find out what exactly happens if you click the “Run Cleaner” button, click the “Analyze” button and you will see a report on the areas that will get cleaning. Once you start the cleaning process, there is no way to undo so make review these areas before committing. You should also close any browser windows that you have open just so the cleaning operation is smooth.
- Wait for CCleaner to finish and re-launch your browsers. Check the history sections just to make sure everything is clean. If not, you can try digging through your browser’s options to clear the history the usual way. Piriform likes to stay up-to-date with the browser support so click the “Options” icon and click “Settings” and check the “Automatically check for updates to CCleaner” checkbox so your CCleaner will stay up-to-date and compatible with your web browsers. This way, the history cleaning functions will always work.
