How to view Computer History with InfoFind
Introduction
When you browse the Internet or open a file, your computer saves a history of all your actions. This information is often helpful because it can improve tasks such web browsing speed and finding and opening files. Plus you can track when and what you did on your computer at any time. However if you are on a public computer or if you want to keep your history private then you probably want this information cleared so no one else can access it.Many different programs save history in many locations on your computer and most of it is hidden so you cannot access it. This makes viewing or deleting your computer’s history very difficult. InfoFind solves the problem of viewing, searching, and clearing computer history because it displays all of your computer's history on one easy to use screen and allows you to choose what you want to delete. An example of why you might want to view history is if you use a computer at work and need to keep track of how long you work on certain projects. You could view the history in InfoFind after you finish your work to see what you worked on and for how long.
Your history can be accessed with the free version of InfoFind so if you’re curious then download and install InfoFind today.
Benefits of Computer History
Many programs falsely claim to help fix your computer by clearing this information but they are usually harmful programs that scam people for money, and in fact clearing this information slows down many features while only moderately speeding up startup times. Basically you can think of your computer as a book. In the back of many books there is an index; it doesn’t take up many pages and helps you quickly find what you need. A computer works the same way; it has many indexes that take several extra seconds to open when you first turn on your computer, but then when you use your computer they actually help speed it up. With InfoFind you can clear this information if you want to keep it private otherwise there is no need to delete it.Opening the Computer History Form
You can access the Computer History Form from the menu [Computer]->[Computer History] or you can also access the Form from the side panel on the left side of InfoFind under [Computer]->[Computer History].
Viewing Computer History
To view your computer's history click on the button [View History] and then click on any item that you want to view from the list on the left. To find specific items in the list type what you want to find in the [Filter] text box above the history lists. To clear an individual item click on the [Clear] button and to create an Excel Report click on the [Report] button. You can also right-click on the history list for a menu of reporting options.
InfoFind can even be installed on old computers and find the history of those computers. Below is an example of a Windows 95 Computer and history that can only be easily found with InfoFind.
As shown in the previous picture older computers often contain a large amount of computer history that can only be found with InfoFind. Below is an example of a Windows 2000 computer that contains 284 different history categories containing more than 55,000 total records. Most of the history cannot be accessed with Windows or other programs and requires InfoFind to easily view and clear it.
Clearing Computer History
To clear your computer's history, click the button [Clear History] and you will be able to choose from a list of all available history items. Then select the items that you want to clear from the list of the left side and then click button [Clear Selected Items] at the bottom of this screen. InfoFind will warn if there are any programs open that might interfere with being able to clear this history. Once you clear the history a report listing the results will be displayed below.
History that InfoFind Shows and Clears
The table below lists an overview of computer history that InfoFind shows and can clear.| Category | Program |
|---|---|
| Windows | Computer History |
| Windows | Recent Documents |
| Windows | Recent Documents List |
| Windows | Windows Open and Save Menus |
| Windows | Windows Recently Used Menus |
| Windows | Start Run Entries |
| Windows | Temp Folder |
| Windows | USB Devices |
| Internet | Internet Explorer - Versions 3 to 8 |
| Internet | Firefox - Versions 1 to 3 and Various Beta Versions |
| Internet | Maxthon Browser - Versions 1 and 2 |
| Internet | Avant Browser |
| Internet | Google Chrome - Versions 1 to 5 |
| Internet | Apple Safari - Versions 3 to 5 |
| Internet | Opera - Versions 4 to 10 |
| Internet | Netscape - Versions 4 to 9 |
| Internet | Flock - Version 1 and Beta Versions |
| Internet | SeaMonkey |
| Internet | Mozilla, Various Mozilla Based Browsers |
| Programs | InfoFind |
| Programs | Microsoft Office 97 To 2010 |
| Programs | Windows Media Player |
| Programs | QuickTime Player |
| Programs | Real Player |
| Programs | Flash |
| Programs | WordPad |
| Programs | Paint |
| Programs | Journal |
| Programs | Acrobat Viewer - Versions 4 To 9 |
Viewing History for Other Users
InfoFind displays history for all users on a computer, however to view this Information you must have administrator privileges for newer versions of Windows. Windows Vista and Windows 7 add extra layers of security so even if you have administrator privileges then you must tell Windows to run InfoFind with administrator privileges otherwise you cannot view history for other users. There are several ways to do this. Each time you run InfoFind you can right-click on its icon and choose the menu [Run as administrator]. Before InfoFind opens Windows will then prompt you to run it or not.
