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Disable IE’s “Clear History” in Windows XP

By Mohammad Yousef | June 2004

It’s true that we should respect other people’s privacy. But it’s your right as well to know how others are using your PC and internet connection. For example, you might be suspecting someone of abusing your computer to access all kinds of shady websites. Thanks to the volatility of computer data, it’s very hard to obtain any evidence. With a few mouse clicks, even a newbie can completely erase his/her data trail. If your PC is used by an average user, all you need -to catch that person red handed- is this simple registry hack which will disable the “Clear History” button in Internet Explorer.

Before I start, I must warn you that the registry is a crucial part of your system and messing around with it is dangerous. No, it can’t set off some nuclear reaction but improper use of it can severely damage your system. So, I only recommend registry hacks if you’re familiar with computers or at least able to carefully follow my instructions.

1. Open Registry Editor: Click Start | Click Run | Type regedit | Press Enter

2. Navigate to the following key (if it doesn’t exist, create it): HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel

3. To lock the “Clear History” button, you’ll have to modify the DWORD value called “History” (without quotes). If the value “History” does not already exist, right click in the right section of the window and select New, DWORD Value. Name it “History”.

4. Now that the value “History” is ready, double click on it to change its value data from 0 to 1. Click OK. Immediately, the “Clear History” button in Internet Explorer should be disabled (it turns gray). If Internet Explorer is already open, you might need to restart it to see the changes.

If you’d like to disable the whole General tab (in Internet Options) which contains other functions such as deleting cookies and temporary internet files, follow the same previous steps. The only different thing is that you’ll need to modify/create the value called “GeneralTab” instead of “History”.