Delete History Free

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on April 25, 2011

Delete History Free accurately names this free application that deletes your browsing history as well as temporary Internet files, search history, AutoComplete and address bar entries, and other traces of online activity squirreled away in various caches throughout Windows. It can clean your browser automatically when you close it or any time you like. It supports all the major browsers currently popular, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, Maxthon, and Netscape. It offers invisible mode, password protection, hot keys, scheduled operation, and a file shredder.

Delete History Free's dialog-style interface offers a sidebar tree view displaying all supported browsers and selections for deleting Windows and application history caches. A Quick Select button let us select all items for deleting, or we could delete selected items only. The program made quick work of our saved browser data, as we verified by returning to previously visited pages, now no longer cached. An icon-based toolbar also let us select and delete all items quickly as well as save our settings. Delete Browser Free's settings include options such as notifications and confirmation messages and controls for setting hot keys and passwords and scheduling automatic cleanups by hours and minutes. The shredding tool applies Department of Defense 5220.22-M(E) file destruction and displays progress, which securely removes browsing data and shows you that it's doing it, too, so you know your privacy is being enforced. But there's another good reason to use Delete History Free, if you happen to boot from an ultrafast solid-state disk instead of a hard disk drive. Since most browsers store temporary files in your user account, it can help keep your SSD slim and nimble by emptying such caches.

In truth, there are plenty of good reasons to clean your browser: regular browser cleaning is part of a proactive, preventive online security policy, and it's a good practice in general, especially if you use several different Web browsers. Delete History Free would be a wise addition to a sensible, regular Windows maintenance schedule.