How to View Internet History

There are many cases when you may need to check the Internet history, such as accidentally closing the browser window or tabs which you were supposed to refer to. If you are a parent, you might need to check which sites does your child visit on the web. Checking the history of web browsers is very simple. You just have to keep clicking on the appropriate menus till you do not get the pages visited previously. However, the procedure depends on the browser which you are using. For example, the process of checking history on Internet Explorer versions may not be the same as that in Mozilla Firefox versions.

General Methods to View Internet History

There are many ways which can be used for viewing the websites visited previously. One simple method is to locate the address bar and click the downward arrow on its right. A list of the websites visited recently will be displayed. Another method is to press the 'Control' button along with the 'H' key on the computer keyboard. A window will be displayed on the left hand side of the screen, which will sort the history day wise and week wise. You can click on the appropriate folder category to view a detailed record of the websites visited. Both these methods can be used on most browsers.

Internet Explorer
If you want to view web history in the Internet Explorer browser, the method may slightly vary according to the version you are using. If you are using Internet Explorer 7 or 8, you can see the websites visited by clicking on the 'Favorites' button on the left hand side of the browser. There will be categories of days or weeks from which the website data can be viewed. If you are using other versions; you will have to click 'Tools', 'Toolbars', and then 'History'.

Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox provides a very easy way to view previously visited websites. In the menu bar, there is a separate 'History' option. Clicking the 'History' option will display few of the recently visited websites. But if you want to see the detailed history of the browser, you need to click on the 'Show All History' option. Doing so will display a separate window, which will include the history folders. Clicking on any one option therein will display a detailed list of the websites visited.

How to View Internet History from a Hard Drive?

Whichever website pages you visit on the web, there is a backup created in the computer hard drive. The websites can be viewed by accessing the 'Temporary Internet Files' folder on the hard drive. Double click on 'My Computer', enter into the 'C' drive, go in the 'Documents and Settings' folder, select the username whom you want the history of, then click on the 'Local Settings' folder, and finally click on 'Temporary Internet Files' to find the visited websites. You can also access the link 'C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\' to view the history. Instead of the username, you need to type in the name of the user whose history is to be viewed. Suppose the 'Temporary Internet Files' folder does not have any content, that means the website history has been deleted. If you want to know, how to view deleted Internet history, there are specific software meant for that purpose. For deleted history retrieval, the software makes use of the 'index.dat' file that is not deleted by the 'clear history' method.

These were the standard procedures to view website history of the browser. However, you need to remember that the procedures may differ according to web browsers used.