Internet Explorer not recording history

[Globaliser]

I upgraded from XP Home to XP Pro, no problems. Went to a website that required the Flash plug-in, but it didn't work (it had before the upgrade). I discovered that the Flash plug-in was v5, instead of v6 before. So I go to Macromedia and download the current Flash plug-in, which is v7. Site works, everything else works, so far so good.

The next morning I discover that Internet Explorer has stopped recording visited URLs in the History.

I blame installing the Flash plug-in because, judging by the times of the last URLs recorded in the history folder, IE stopped recording at about the time I installed the plug-in. Plus it's the only thing I can think of that I did to IE that might have caused a change in behaviour.

I've now completely uninstalled Flast, but IE has not reverted to proper behaviour.

Does anyone have any ideas about what else I can try, short of trying to re-install IE?

TIA.

[E-Liam]

Hi Globaliser,

Click on Start | Settings | Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs, then scroll down the list and highlight Internet Explorer 6.0 and Internet Tools by clicking once. A button will illuminate under the list saying Add/Remove program. Click on that and then click on the option to Repair, and click OK. That should sort it out for you, although your previous history is most likely lost now.

Cheers

Liam

[Saab Dastard]

Globaliser,

I would also visit the MS Windows update site and ensure that you have all the security updates - this will include updates and SPs for IE, which may help.

SD

[Globaliser]

[Edited to replace original:]

I'd originally posted to say thanks, but IE seemed to have fixed itself over the weekend. It was recording history properly first thing this morning, so I thought I would leave well alone.

But now it's stopped again.

Unfortunately my Add/Remove Programs list doesn't have IE listed (only an IE patch obtained via Windows Update), so it looks like I can't follow E-Liam's suggestion. If this problem doesn't fix itself in a few days I may have to go down the route of trying to reinstall IE from the Windows disk.

Many thanks for the help, though!

[E-Liam]

Hi Globaliser,

Go to Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | System Information | Tools | Internet Explorer Repair Tool and do it from there. See how you get on with that.

Cheers

Liam

[Globaliser]

Thanks, Liam, but I haven't got Internet Explorer Repair Tool on that menu. The only options are Net Diagnostics, System Restore, File Signature Verification Utility, DirectX Diagnostic Tool and Dr Watson.

[Edited to add:]
Have now had bright idea to System Restore back to last night's automatic restore point. Which seems to have worked, and IE is now again doing what it was doing first thing this morning. Fingers crossed ...

[Globaliser]

Sorry all, it's stopped again. Becoming a bit of a soap opera. Any further advice gratefully received.

[Phoenix09]

From Internet Explorer try going into tools/ internet options under the general tab check to make sure that the 'days to keep pages in history' hasn't reset itself to 0 or 1. I think the default is 20 days.

[Ant]

Holy Cow, Phoenix09!!!!

I've been following this thread because we too have been losing IE's history. Did all the repair and update stuff to no avail of course. Looked at your suggestion re the 'days to keep pages in history' hasn't reset itself to 0 and had a look. IT SHOWED ZERO DAYS!!!
Just how the heck did this happen?!?!
Anyway many thanks.

A thought for Globaliser: do you have Zonealarm Pro cos theres a option under 'privacy' to clean history. Worth a try.

[Globaliser]

I then got hit by a bigger problem, namely an auto dialler (games.exe, a known pest) which I acquired off a popup from another bulletin board. Grr. So I have done a bigger number of things, some of which seem to have fixed the original problem.

1. In Internet Explorer: Tools -> Internet Options: Clear History folder. Clear cookies. Clear temporary internet files (including offline content).
2. Right click Start: Properties -> Customize: Clear recent items. (There are different routes depending on whether you are using the pastel XP look or the classic Windows look but they're both there.)
3. Open Windows Explorer: Tools -> Folder Options: Show hidden files and folders. Un-Hide protected system files.
4. In Windows Explorer: Go to My Computer -> Local disk -> Documents and Settings: In every folder and subfolder, manually look for Cookies folders and Temporary Internet Files folders. Delete all cookies and temporary internet files manually out of them: IE 6 didn't automatically get rid of everything.
5. Go back to Tools -> Folder Options and reverse the two changes in 3. above.

(I did a couple more things which were more obviously to do with games.exe.)

Then restart the computer and see if everything works OK. It would be a good idea to check the length of time for recording History at this stage.

Thanks again to everyone for the help!