Internet Explorer 7 Will Flush Its History

Microsoft's forthcoming Internet Explorer (IE) 7 browser will have a thorough flush feature that clears its history and all associated files stored after a Web site is accessed.

In IE 6, a user has to spend lots of time trying to expunge the information stored after a Web site has been visited, wrote Uche Enuha, a program manager on the IE user experience team, on the company's browser blog.

The new "delete browsing history" feature under the "tools" menu will be able to wipe out five major data categories, including temporary Internet files, cookies, history, form data, and passwords, Enuha wrote.

A user can delete all of those at once or can individually choose which ones to wipe through the "delete browsing history" panel, Enuha wrote.

Deeper Cleaning

The feature goes deeper than a novice user would likely pursue. For example, deleting files from the temporary Internet files folder will also clean out attachments stored by the Outlook e-mail program in that folder, Enuha wrote.

A beta version of IE 7 has been out for Windows XP Service Pack 2 and an enhanced beta version is available for the beta 1 version of Windows Vista, according to Microsoft's Web site.