How to Find Deleted Browsing History

There are circumstances, which force us to use shared computers. For privacy reasons we make it a point to delete both computer as well as Internet history. However, in case some data from the deleted records is required, we are at a loss.

So can the deleted history be recovered? Well, the answer to this question is 'Yes'. But before we get to the method used for recovering deleted history, we have to understand, where is Internet history stored on the system.

The Internet history is stored in the Windows registry and in the Internet cookies. In the following lines, we will concentrate on how to retrieve deleted browsing history.

Any web browser that you use, keeps a track of the websites that you visit. The web browsers store this information in Internet cookies, allowing them to easily locate the web pages, that the user has visited, in case he wants to revisit the web page again.

Although you might believe that once deleted it is not possible to retrieve the browsing history information, it is not true. One of the methods is to use the search desktop operation. For this, you can make use of Google desktop search. Using the keywords, you have used to browse the Internet, you will be able to retrieve the browsing information.

Every browser stores the information in the log files. The index.dat file is the name of the log file used by Internet Explorer. Search the index.dat file using the Windows files and folders search. Note that the index.dat files are not text files.

Therefore, an index.dat reader will have to be downloaded from the Internet to read these files. Once the software has been downloaded and installed on the system, you will be able to see the history, you are looking for.

Like Internal Explorer has index.dat files, Mozilla Firefox has the history.dat file. Search for this file in the Windows system files and folders. Then download the appropriate software to read the history.dat file. 'X-Ways Trace 3.1' is one of the programs that is commonly used for this purpose.

As mentioned, even though the browsing history is deleted from the browser, it does not get deleted from the hard drive. To retrieve deleted history on Mac, you have to go to the 'Time Machine' icon located on the Mac desktop. Locate the 'Set Up Time Machine' tab and click on it.

Here toggle the option from 'Off' to 'On' to cause the system data to be backed up. Restore the system to a date and time in the 'Time Machine', to a previous one which was before the browser history was deleted.

Now click on the 'Choose Backup Disc' tab and decide on the location where the data should be backed up. After this go to the Safari browser and click on the 'Preferences' option in the browser menu.

You will see the 'Security' option located at the top of 'Preferences' drop down box. After that, click on the 'Show Cookies' button, which will enable you to see the deleted browsing history.