# IE question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 4, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493 "2003-06-04T01:59:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/1 "2003-06-04T01:59:15Z")
When you use Google (for example), a bunch of previous entries will come up. Is there a way to clear up those previously searched or entered words that you put in fields like that? I have old e-mail addresses and such coming up, and I’d rather clear those out. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/2 "2003-06-04T02:01:51Z")
Tools \> Internet Options \> Content tab \> AutoComplete button. Set options as desired. You can turn it on or off for various types of fields or clear the cache of stored entries. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/3 "2003-06-04T02:05:04Z")
Or, just to clear them out without getting fancy about it, Tools \> Internet Options \> General tab \> Clear History. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/4 "2003-06-04T02:08:05Z")
Nope, that won’t do it. The Autocomplete cache and your history cache are two different things. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/5 "2003-06-04T02:09:03Z")
You can also manually scroll through them with the arrow keys and delete the ones you want with the \ key. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/6 "2003-06-04T12:04:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Q.E.D. \* > \*\*Nope, that won’t do it. The Autocomplete cache and your history cache are two different things. \*\* Don’t want to start a big argument, but I just tried it (IE6). I cleared my history under the General tab, and from that moment, autocomplete didn’t “fill in” anything for me. Now, once I’ve started visiting websites and doing address bar searches, of course, the autocomplete remembers _those_, but anything from before I cleared my history seems to be gone forever. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/7 "2003-06-04T12:31:40Z")
That removes _only_ address bar entries. It does _not_ remove entries in form fields, which is what the OP was talking about (entering searches into Google). Go on, try it. I’ll wait. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/8 "2003-06-04T12:39:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bill H. \* > \*\*You can also manually scroll through them with the arrow keys and delete the ones you want with the \ key. \*\* Wow! Thanks! That works great! (for the AutoComplete, anyway) Now, is there a way to **selectively** delete from the Addresses list? ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/9 "2003-06-04T12:50:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Keeve \* > \*\*Wow! Thanks! That works great! (for the AutoComplete, anyway) > > Now, is there a way to **selectively** delete from the Addresses list? \*\* What **Bill H** said. Just touch the cursor to the entry you want to delete (without clicking) and press the delete key on the keyboard. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/10 "2003-06-04T12:51:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Q.E.D. \* > \*\*That removes _only_ address bar entries. It does _not_ remove entries in form fields, which is what the OP was talking about (entering searches into Google). Go on, try it. I’ll wait. \*\* Ah, I see! Since I do my Google searches from the address bar, I hadn’t experienced the _other_ variety of autocomplete. Right you are (though there’s no reason to get snarky about it 😉 ). ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/11 "2003-06-04T13:12:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by whuckfistle \* > \*\*What **Bill H** said. Just touch the cursor to the entry you want to delete (without clicking) and press the delete key on the keyboard. \*\* That would be great if that actually worked. Unfortunately, he is talking about the entries in the address bar in IE, and this technique doesn’t work there. You _could_ go into your history folder and delete the addresses you wanted to remove from there. I’m not entirely certain that will work, as I haven’t tried it. ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rex_fenestrarum/32/7265_2.png) [@Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Fenestrarum)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/12 "2003-06-04T14:04:35Z")
For address bar entries, open Regedit and go to: HKEY\_CURRENT\_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs and delete all the entries in the right-hand pane of RegEdit. I’ve never really wanted to delete these, but I’m **sure** that there’s a freeware program to do this. Or, you can create a .REG file for that key that’s empty - simply merge it as desired. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/13 "2003-06-04T17:09:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Q.E.D. \* > **That would be great if that actually worked. Unfortunately, he is talking about the entries in the address bar in IE, and this technique doesn’t work there.** You are, of course, correct. I thought he was referring to the seperate drop down bar in a stand-alone Google search function.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/14 "2003-06-04T17:20:59Z")
That _would_ be a nice feature though. You know, for browsing porn at work… What? ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/15 "2003-06-04T18:52:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Q.E.D. \* > \*\*That _would_ be a nice feature though. You know, for browsing porn at work… > What? \*\* I know you’re joking, but wouldn’t recommend it anyway. Your company’s firewall is probably logging the address of anything you request from the internet, and may even be caching the pages and images. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-question/179493/16 "2003-06-07T20:51:40Z")
Thanks very much for your solutions!