How to Clear Your History in Popular Web Browsers

Microsoft Edge stores a significant amount of browsing data as well as session-specific settings which dictate the browser's behavior. This data is broken down into a dozen categories, each managed via Edge's pop-out settings interface.

Internet Explorer 11 offers several ways to clear history, including a simple keyboard shortcut as well as through IE11's General Options section. Users are also given the ability to automatically clear history each time they close the browser. This in-depth tutorial walks you through each of these methods.

• Clear history in IE9
• Clear history in IE8
• Clear history in IE7

Safari for OS X and macOS Sierra allows you to clear history as well as several other private data components with just a few clicks of your mouse. Saved items are broken out into multiple groupings including browsing history and cookies. This brief how-to article describes the steps required to clear history in Safari.

• Clear history in Safari for iPad

Google's Chrome browser for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows provides the ability to clear some or all browsing data components from several pre-defined time intervals. This includes traditional information such as browsing history and cookies as well as some unique items like protected content licenses.

• Clear history in Chrome for iOS
• Powerwash (Reset) a Chromebook

Mozilla's Firefox browser allows you to clear browsing history and other private data through its Privacy Options interface, letting you delete files from individual categories as well as cookies from select websites.