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scunliffe
Asked: 2009-06-17 06:55:51 +0800 CST

How do you stop Internet Explorer from tracking history of files opened up in OTHER applications?

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I do want Internet Explorer to maintain a history for websites I visit (e.g. to enhance performance with caching and provide quick access back to places I've recently visited)

However I have never, ever wanted Internet Explorer to track history for files it didn't even open!

e.g. when I view txt files, xml files, videos, mp3 files, doc files, spreadsheets etc... by "launching" them from elsewhere in Windows (e.g. Windows Exploring (the file manager, not the browser), or from Firefox, Chrome, etc. when they pass along a file to be handled outside the browser).

I'm open to running scripts daily to purge the bogus entries but ideally a one time regedit or similar fix would be preferred.

windows internet-explorer

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Here's how you stop the Recent Documents from being populated (not just hidden from Start Menu): http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/545/

    Here's how you stop Media Player from keeping history: http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1195/

    Is there somewhere else are you seeing the history of files you've opened besides these? Microsoft Office might keep a separate recent documents history, but you can disable that in preferences.

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  2. Unfortunately, this isn't as easy as you may think, since Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer are so closely integrated.

    As far as I know, this isn't possible to do, because of this integration. You may want to look into Internet Explorer 8 and InPrivate browsing for a workaround.

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