How do I tell Internet Explorer to stop autocompleting web addresses?

Factual Questions
1

I am running IE 5.2 on a Macintosh. When I start to type in a url on the Address line, IE “suggests” a completion for the address. I want to stop it from doing that.

I went to preferences and deleted both the cash and the history, but it still seems to “remember” certain addresses that I’ve been to.

Any ideas?

2

Tools > Internet Options > Content tab > AutoComplete button. Check or uncheck options you want to use it for.

3

I don’t think that will do it–I think that is for fields on a form, not the Address Line. I think you’re going to need to clear your History, then tell it not to keep any history…?? Try that and see.

4

Nope. That won’t work, either.

I know cuz I’ve tried it. :slight_smile:

5

Yes, it will. AutoComplete can be used for three things: web addresses in the address bar, information on forms, and usernames and passwords. Clearing your history has zero effect on the AutoComplete cache. Try it, I’ll wait.

6

  1. Tell it to keep no history

  2. Bookmark no sites. Really. It starts autocompleting anything you have in your Favorites list.

7

I did leave out one step, your favorites will still complete unless you go to Explorer (on Mac)->Preferences->Web Browser->Browser Display and uncheck “Use Address AutoComplete”. Maybe I’m making what could be done in one fell swoop more cumbersome…

8

I’m not sure how to do this on the Macintosh version of IE. I went into Preferences > Forms Autofill > Forms Autocomplete and I checked the button to disable autocomplete.

That doesn’t seem to work.

This is sort of crazy. Is there some file I can manually delete form a preferences folder or something?

9

Can I delete all my postings? :slight_smile:

I think Q.E.D. IS right after all, but how you get there is a little different on the Mac (OSX).

10

constantine, you will change this in this way

Explorer->Preferences->Web Browser->Browser Display and uncheck “Use Address AutoComplete”

11

That did it.

Thanks everyone!

12

Kudos, Heart! I think that is the key point. We can probably ignore the rest.

I used to love learning how to do new things with programs. Now I love learning how to turn off all of Microsoft’s helpful features.