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How to Clear Your Search History on Windows 10

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None of us count how much we search for things online, but rest assured, we do so many times a day. Technology companies like Microsoft know that we need help exploring the vast treasure trove of things online. That’s why we have integrated search in every browser that’s worth using on Windows 10. It’s also why Windows 10 has its own built-in search functionality. Useful as all those search features might be, there’ll come a time when you want to clear your search history on Windows 10. You’ll probably want to clear your browser history too.

Maybe you’re trying to get rid of some advertisements that came from a search you made, or maybe you’re trying to clean up your computer before someone else uses it. Regardless, you’ll want to clear away any trace of your searches locally. The many web browsers that you can install on Windows make clearing away your search history easy. Clearing away searches from Windows 10’s search feature isn’t quite as straight forward, but still doable.

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Here’s how to clear your search history on Windows 10.

How to Clear Your Search History on Windows 10: Built-In & Bing Search

The task of clearing away your search history should start with Windows 10 itself. With its latest operating system update, Microsoft integrated Bing search deeply into Windows 10. Search is how the Cortana personal assistant can answer your questions, for example. If you’ve ever used the Ask Me Anything field in the search bar, you’ve used Windows 10’s integrated search.

Tap or click on the Ask Me Anything area of your Taskbar.

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With the Cortana fly out open, tap or click on the Settings button near the bottom on the left edge. Note that this window can look a little different if you have yet to turn on Cortana.

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Once inside the Settings area, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the settings listing.

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Now tap or click on the Search history settings button.

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You should now find yourself in a Microsoft Edge window. That’s because Microsoft offloads management of search history to the Bing website. Once the page has loaded, tap or click on the Change History Settings text.

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Now tap or click on the Clear All button at the center of the window.

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In a few moments, your search history should be clear as far as Windows 10 and Cortana are concerned.

How to Clear Your Search History on Windows 10: Microsoft Edge

Clearing out the search history in Windows 10 is different from clearing out your browsing and search history with the Microsoft Edge browser that comes built into Windows 10. To clear what you’ve got stored there, you’ll need to go do it explicitly.

Open Microsoft Edge and wait for your home page to load.

Tap or click on the three dots in the top-right corner of Microsoft Edge.

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Select Settings from the drop-down menu.

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Tap or click on the Choose what to clear button under Clear browsing data.

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Browsing history, cookies and sites stored on your computer to make them a little faster when browsing are selected by default. You can uncheck these options or clear them along with just your browser history. Now tap or click on the Clear button. Microsoft Edge also gives you the option to have it always clear your browser history whenever you close the window. That option is below the Clear button.

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How to Clear Your Search History on Windows 10: Internet Explorer

Microsoft Edge is different from Internet Explorer, which still comes bundled into Windows 10. If you haven’t used Internet Explorer, you don’t have to worry about clearing it. If you have, you might as well clear its history too.

Open Internet Explorer.

Tap or click on the Settings cog in the top-right corner of the window.

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Now select Internet Options.clear-browsing-history-win1015

Tap or click on the Delete… button under Browsing History.

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Go ahead and click on the Delete button.

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How to Clear Your Search History in Windows 10: Chrome

Windows 10 is a hugely popular operating system, but Microsoft’s browsers aren’t the most used anymore. That honor goes to Google’s Chrome web browser. Clearing your search history in Windows 10 within Chrome is pretty straight forward too.

Open Chrome. Press the CTRL + SHIFT + Delete keys on your keyboard at the same time.

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Welcome to the Clear Browsing Data area. Now you need to decide how far back you want to clear your browsing history. The default is the last hour of browsing, but you can select the beginning of time from the drop-down menu to clear all of your history.

Click Clear browsing data.

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Now you know how to clear your browsing and search history in Windows 10 and many of the most popular browsers that run on it. Good luck with your Windows 10 PC.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. James

    12/31/2016 at 7:41 am

    Good instructions!

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