Internet Explorer 9's Web Browser History is a feature of Internet Explorer 9 that allows you to view the History of your, or someone elses, internet sessions. For each day you, and/or someone else, uses the internet a History folder is created. Each history folder is given its own day name (Last Week, Today, Monday, Wednesday and so on) and has two jobs to perform.

The first job is to create a sub-folder for each website visited on that day - Each sub-folder is named after its website. And the second job is to create a web page link (Link File) for each website and web page visited on that day - Each web page link is put into the correct website sub-folder. The structure and usage of History is identical to that of Favorites.

The purpose of History is to allow you to go back to a certain website (or web page) simply by clicking on its link, as opposed to retyping its www.whatever... address/url into Internet Explorer's address bar edit box. History also acts an Evidence Builder against those abusing your internet trust and those abusing the internet in general.

To see the history of the computer you are on you must first click on the FAVORITES (yellow star) button of internet explorer 9 (Fig 1.0) to display the Favorites window, which consists of various menu-items and buttons (Fig 1.1). The FAVORITES (yellow star) button acts as a menu (menu title) for the actual FAVORITES window (menu-items and buttons).

Fig 1.0  Click on the FAVORITES (yellow star) button to continue




Fig 1.1  Click on the HISTORY Tab, if it's not already the selected tab

The Favorites window consists of a button called ADD TO FAVORITES, which also doubles up as a drop-down menu (on its right-side), three tabbed windows called FAVORITES, FEEDS and HISTORY and a button called SEE SUGGESTED SITES. You can ignore all of them for now!

After clicking on the HISTORY Tab the main folders I mentioned at the beginning of this section (i.e. Today and Monday) are displayed. Today is the main folder that is highlighted by default whenever you click on the HISTORY Tab. Continue by clicking on the day (main folder) you want to view the history of - The day (main folder) icons are represented by a Calendar icon.

In this example I clicked on Today (Fig 1.2 below) to reveal the websites and web pages I have visited so far today (BBC, GOOGLE, TFL and YOINGCO) - Each website (sub-folder) is represented by an orange history (Back In Time) icon. If you have been viewing offline web pages (i.e. saved web pages inside a standard computer folder), today, the Computer history folder will also be shown and list those viewed offline web pages.

Fig 1.2  Click on a History Day to continue

With the websites revealed for your day (i.e. Today) the next thing to do is click on a website's (sub-folder's) name. In this example (Fig 1.3 below) I have clicked on the TFL website (sub-folder) which then reveals all the web pages I have visited within that website - Just one web page called Home | Transport For London which is its main (index/home) web page.

If I had visited more web pages within the TFL website HISTORY would of listed those web pages (Link Files) as well, either as a web page (link file) or as a website (sub-folder) depending on whether or not that website diverts you to another website. TFL's Journey Planner, for example, creates a new website (sub-folder) called journeyplanner.

Fig 1.3  Click on a website's (sub-folder's) name to continue

With the website's (sub-folder's) name selected, all that is left to do now is click on a web page's (link file's) name (Fig 1.4 below) in order to visit that web page - Internet explorer 9 will open a new window for it. In this example I can only click on the Home | Transport For London web page (link file) in order for internet explorer 9 to take me to the TFL website (Fig 1.5 below).

Fig 1.4  Click on a web page's (link file's) name to open (view) that web page in internet explorer 9




Fig 1.5  Clicking on a web page name (Fig 1.4 above) takes you to that web page

So to recap, because a lot was explained above. After clicking on the FAVORITES (yellow star) button you then click on the HISTORY Tab. This reveals the days (main folders) you have History for (i.e. Today, Monday and so on). From there you click on the day (main folder) you want to view the history of (i.e. Today), which reveals that day's visited websites (sub-folders).

Clicking on a website's (sub-folder's) name (i.e. TFL) then reveals the web page(s) you visited within that website (i.e. Home | Transport For London). So, finally, you click on a web page's (link file's) name in order to be taken to that web page. And as said above, this is the whole idea of HISTORY. To be taken back to a website or web page you have visited recently, instead of having to type that website's or web page's name into Internet Explorer's address bar edit box each time.

Sometimes you may need more information about a particular web page in your History. The two main reasons being that you want to know if someone has been abusing their trust on your computer and/or you just want more information. For example. You may suspect someone of looking at bad web pages (i.e. containing XXX Material) or you may have many similarly named web pages in your History (i.e. BBC - History and BBC - History - British History). In the latter case many history web pages might have been visited, therefore only the last part of their URL (full web address) may differ. If you need to find out the full title of a web page and/or its URL, as well as how many times it has been visited, do the following.

Right click on the web page's name to bring up the Options menu (Fig 2.0) and then left click on the PROPERTIES menu-item. This will display the Properties (Type, Internet Address, Last Visited and Times Visited) of that web page (Fig 2.1).

Fig 2.0  Right click on a web page's name and select PROPERTIES....




Fig 2.1  ....to display that web page's History.

When the Properties window appears look at the INTERNET ADDRESS property. It shows the URL, or the last part of the URL when it is too long, which in this case is history/british/tudors/majesty_menace_01.shtml.

The URL is in a selected state which means it could be copied and then pasted directly into Internet Explorer 9's address bar edit box (or into a Document) for example. This is because the URL is inside an edit box. If you want to see the first part of the URL simply click into the edit box and then scroll the flashing cursor leftwards until you reach the beginning of the URL (Fig 2.2) or better still press the HOME keyboard key instead.

Fig 2.2  Click inside the edit box and scroll leftwards, or press the HOME keyboard key, to see the beginning of the URL

From the beginning of the URL you can select the whole URL by pressing the keyboard key SHIFT and then END. This will highlight the whole URL, ready for copying (keyboard key CTRL and then C) and pasting (keyboard key CTRL and then V). Alternatively. When the URL is in its selected state (Fig 2.1 above) either copy it with keyboard key CTRL and then C or right click over it to bring up its Options menu and then select (left click on) the COPY menu-item.

Fig 2.3  Right click over the selected URL and then COPY it

You can ignore the Last Visited property because it gives the Date and Time the web page was last visited as the Present Time, which defeats the purpose of checking when the web page really was last visited.

You can also ignore the Times Visited property to a degree because it is not accurate enough. However, saying this; As long as it states more than 4 you can make a case with someone that they "did not accidently look at that web page". Usually in a scenario where you suspect someone of looking at a XXX Material web page.

Their clicking excuses usually go "It was an accident. I did not know I was entering that kind of web page". "Oh dear. I must of clicked it twice by mistake". "Erm...well I don't know about computers that much do I". "It wasn't me, it was him". By the fourth click (fourth excuse) you can normally tell if someone is lying or not. It is at this time you should tell them "Please do not touch my computer....".

Fig 2.4  Click on a Google web page (link file) to follow its History

Sometimes you can misread History, so be careful before you start accusing. For example. In Fig 2.4 above it could be interpreted that I have been searching Google to find links to XXX Material (pictures and/or videos) websites to do with a Naked Chef, but in fact I have been searching for Jamie Oliver's website. Jamie Oliver is a celebrity chef in London, famous for his TV show called The Naked Chef.

If you need to confirm what someone has been looking at in respect of their Google searching simply click on the web page's (link file's) name in History (Fig 2.4) and it will take you to the Google website where the searched item (Naked Chef) will be listed, together with any links that were clicked on (Fig 2.5 below).

Fig 2.5  Visited websites and web pages have purple links instead of blue

As you can see, by clicking on the Naked Chef - Google Search web page (link file - Fig 2.4 above) I was taken to the Google website (Fig 2.5 above) where it listed Jamie Oliver links. And the top link is highlighted in purple to denote that I have visited (clicked on) that link before. This is confirmed by the link file in Fig 2.4 called jamieoliver (www.jamieoliver.com).

Unfortunately, due to the nature and play of Words, what someone searches for using a search website such as Google is not always what they want or get. For example. If you were to search for Naked Chef, Nurses Uniform or Virgin Radio the first page of Google should list all web pages to do with Jamie Oliver, A Reputable Retailer That Sells Nurses Uniforms to hospital workers for example and the Radio Station called Virgin, respectively. However, as you look at the other pages of Google (usually towards the end pages) those search words are then normally broken up.

Broken up into Naked + Chef, Nurses + Uniform and Virgin + Radio for example in order to include more links. Therefore you would probably see XXX Material related links on the 50th results page of Google for example. If this is the case and I was to visit (click on) such a link the web page belonging to that link would be listed in my History. Or would it? YES, if I keep my history and it is not deleted naturally or by a cleanup program. And NO, if I decided to delete the web page (link file) from my history. Meaning, history can be cleared.....by the same person looking at bad websites.

Although your Internet History (the history I have been explaining so far) is naturally deleted, with the other files that make up your History, after a certain number of days by Internet Explorer 9 itself (see Internet Options - General TAB for more information) sometimes you might want to delete a certain part of Internet History yourself before Internet Explorer 9 does. For example. You might want to delete Tuesday's history, A part of Tuesday's history only or Wednesday's and Friday's history but not Thursday's history. It is up to you.

To delete a day's history either select it (with the left mouse button) and then press the DEL (Delete) keyboard key or right click on it and then select (with the left mouse button) the DELETE menu-item from the Options menu that appears.

Fig 3.0  Right click on a Day (Last Week in this example) and then select the DELETE menu-item




Fig 3.1  Do you want to delete LAST WEEK's history?

If you delete a day's history, or even all the history days, you are only deleting from this history list - The history files themselves, from this history list, are still inside the Temporary Internet Files sub-folder on the computer until HISTORY (the whole thing) is deleted completely (see the Internet Options - General TAB section for more information).

For example. If MONDAY's history list has www.yoingco.com listed and you then delete MONDAY, www.yoingco.com will no longer be listed. Neither will MONDAY, but the files that make up the www.yoingco.com website will still be inside the Temporary Internet Files sub-folder. The Internet Options - General TAB section, and more specifically the Temporary Internet Files paragraph, explains more about this in detail.

To delete a single web page's (link file's) history you do the same as with a day's history. However, you will not receive a Delete message requester - The web page history will be deleted straight away, without warning, so be careful. The web page's folder will be left intact though.

Fig 3.2  Right click on a web page's name and then select DELETE




Fig 3.3  Only the web page (link file) name has been deleted from the History list

To add a web page to your list of Favorites (Explained in the previous section) you simply right-click on its web page (link file) name and then select the ADD TO FAVORITES menu-item.

Fig 4.0  Click on ADD TO FAVORITES....




Fig 4.1  ....to add a web page to your Favorites list.

In some cases each web page name is the same, simply because HISTORY takes the name from the web page's own title. So how do you know which web page is the main (index.htm) web page and/or the web page you want to add? Simple! Just hover the mouse pointer over a web page's name and it will show its Tooltip (ID) window.

Fig 4.2  Hover the mouse pointer over a web page's name to get its ID

In Fig 4.2 above I am hovering over the web page with the URL of http://www.yoingco.com/main_index.htm and therefore know what web page I am going to add to my Favorites list. The other web page with the same title has the URL of http://www.yoingco.com/ which is my homepage (index.htm web page).

Normally when you are browsing the internet each web page stays in the same opened window. For example. If you were viewing www.google.com and then went to www.yoingco.com the contents of www.yoingco.com would replace the contents of www.google.com in your internet explorer window. So you would be able to see the www.yoingco.com web page but no longer the www.google.com web page unless you clicked on the BACK button of internet explorer. Fortunately, internet explorer has two ways of opening an additional window for web page viewing.

Fig 5.0  Left click on OPEN IN NEW WINDOW




Fig 5.1  Left click on OPEN IN NEW TAB

Open In New Window is one way you can open an additional internet explorer window. Simply right click on a web page's name in the History list and then left click on the OPEN IN NEW WINDOW menu-item (Fig 5.0 above).

Open In New Tab is the other way of opening an additional internet explorer window. Simply right click on a web page's name in the History list and then left click on the OPEN IN NEW TAB menu-item (Fig 5.1 above).

Unlike OPEN IN NEW WINDOW, which really opens an additional (new separate) window, OPEN IN NEW TAB means internet explorer will open an additional (new) window within its own window (Fig 5.2 below) - This is what is meant by TABBED Browser. TABs are independent windows (independent processes) that exist on one main window (in this case the internet explorer main window). Examples of TAB windows can be seen in the Internet Options sections of the Security category.

Fig 5.2  Example of TAB windows - Google web page (in the background, on the left) and Yoingco web page (in the foreground, on the right)

The History list, which is normally viewed BY DATE, can be viewed in other ways. BY webSITE order, BY MOST VISITED web page order or BY ORDER of VISITED web pages TODAY. Simply click on the drop-down menu above the History Days (history list) and select your preferred option.

Fig 6.0  Select how you want to view your History

As said above; Favorites and History are similar in operation. So if you have not read the Favorites section (previous section) have a read of it to gain more insight into the FAVORITES part of internet explorer in general. The Favorites section shows how to drag items for example.

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.  As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.