Tip: Prevent Users from Deleting Browsing History and Clearing Cookies

Browsers store many traces of the sites users visit, including cached copies of pages and images, passwords, and cookies. To simplify removing these traces, Internet Explorer 7 provides a Delete Browsing History option that allows users to initiate cleanup with one button, easily and instantly erasing personal data.

To delete browsing history, follow these steps:

• In your browser, click Tools and then click Internet Options.
• In the Internet Options dialog box on the General tab, click Delete in the Browsing History group.
• In the Delete Browsing History dialog box, shown in Figure 21-15, delete only the objects you need to remove. Alternatively, you can click Delete All.

You probably knew that already. But did you know you can disable these options?

If you don’t want users to be able to delete their browsing history, form data, or passwords, you can enable the following group policy settings located in both Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Internet Explorer\ and User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Internet Explorer\:

• Turn off “Delete Browsing History” Functionality
• Turn off “Delete Forms” Functionality
• Turn off “Delete Passwords” Functionality

From the Microsoft Press book Windows Vista Resource Kit, Second Edition.

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