# Clearing/Changing IE Prefills

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearing-changing-ie-prefills/104748>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 21, 2002, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearing-changing-ie-prefills/104748 "2002-04-21T02:31:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearing-changing-ie-prefills/104748/1 "2002-04-21T02:31:49Z")

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I’m using Internet Explorer for Mac 5.1 over a DSL connection (I don’t think that matters but who knows?). On my PC at work, when I start filling in some fields (e.g. email names/logins, Google or eBay searches) I get a list of previously typed character strings that start with the same letters, from which I can select if I so choose. Here at home, I only get one character string, and it’s the wrong one for most purposes. So how do I clear that string out, or at least modify it to one that’s more useful to me?

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**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearing-changing-ie-prefills/104748/2 "2002-04-21T03:14:11Z")

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On the Tools menu from the main menu bar, select Internet Options, then click the Content tab. In the Personal Information section of that dialog box, click on the AutoComplete button. The Clear Forms button on the new dialog box will clear all Auto-Complete entries.

This is all for IE for Windows, but I doubt Mac is very different.

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**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearing-changing-ie-prefills/104748/3 "2002-04-21T16:02:33Z")

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There’s no Internet Options choice under the Tools menu or any other menu. A valient effort, but no soap.

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**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearing-changing-ie-prefills/104748/4 "2002-04-21T16:13:12Z")

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Try **Edit|Preferences|Web Browser|Browser Display**. Uncheck **Use Address AutoComplete**.

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**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearing-changing-ie-prefills/104748/5 "2002-04-21T16:36:31Z")

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i’m sure our mac friends will be along soon…

in the meantime, look somewhere for settings or options or preferences and see if you can locate the AutoComplete settings.

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**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearing-changing-ie-prefills/104748/6 "2002-04-21T16:40:03Z")

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how did i not see **Number** ’s post ?