Help with disabling delete history function

onmyway1 · Nov 20, 2010

Hi

I would like to disable the delete history function, so i'd appreciate if anyone could help me. I have tried typing gpedit.msc, but it appears this is not available.

I am using an Acer Aspire 5735 laptop, Windows Vista home basic, 6.0.6002 service pack 2 build 6002, Pentium dual-core. I'm not even sure if this information is relevant or sufficient for helping me find a solution, so please accept my apologies for my lack of knowledge.

I'm desperate for any help!

Thanks in advance

niemiro · Nov 20, 2010

Hello, and welcome to the Vista Forums!

Could I please ask what web browser you are trying to do this for?

Thanks!

Richard

onmyway1 · Nov 20, 2010

Hello, and thanks for your reply. Erm, I think it's windows internet explorer. That's what it says at the top of the page. Sorry for my ignorance!

Regards

niemiro · Nov 20, 2010

Hello again!

That is correct, and the most likely, but I just needed to check. I have explained how to do it below, however, it might be still possible for an experienced user to get around this restriction. How knowledgeable would you describe yourself, and the user you are trying to prevent deleting his browsing history with the inner workings of the computer.

There is a big file on the computer, called the registry, which stores all settings in an incredibly complex hierarchy.

The user will now have the Delete Browsing History greyed out, and un-click-able.

In theory at least, the user could manually edit the registry to remove certain websites from their History, or even disable the entire restriction, without you knowing.

Therefore, to make it secure, I must disable the user from editing the registry as well.

However, there is a work around, called silent mode. If the user uses the Registry Modification tool, he will get a message saying that it is disabled. MOST users will be completely stumped if the registry is blocked, and the restriction is in place, and give up.

If the user is really advanced, he will be able to hack. There are instructions on the internet, and we cannot get around that they are out there. It is about how determined he is, and how good at computers he is, as in theory at least we could disable Silent Mode as well.

My recommendation would be to disable registry editing, but allow Silent Mode, and disable Delete Browsing History.

I do have the fix all ready for you, but I want you to understand the above, so I shall give it to you next post if I may.

It is imperative that you understand the above. You probably will not understand it first time. I encourage you to ask questions.

Thanks!

Richard

onmyway1 · Nov 20, 2010

Hello again.

I want to thank you so much for your time, you've been very thorough, and I appreciate your expertise and time ALOT!

To be honest we are both not very advanced with the pc, and I don't think the person i'm trying to prevent deleting history would be bothered to go too deep into hiding their internet history, so I expect the easiest and simplest option would be the best.

Thanks so much for your help

niemiro · Nov 20, 2010

No problems! I shall give you the fix with Silent Mode enabled, which gives you a loophole to exploit, should you need it. If you need it turned off (and I mean both loophole turned off, or restriction turned off) then just come back here. Attached to the bottom of this post is a registry script.

You MUST run it from the account that needs to be restricted. Don't run it on your account, otherwise that will also be restricted.

Simply double click on it in the other account, click YES, click OK.

Any help, now, or in the future, just come back here!

Good luck!

Richard

Lorien · Nov 20, 2010

Hi onmyway1,

Welcome to Vista Forums!

Incidentally, completely as an aside but since you mentioned it I thought I'd explain, gpedit.msc which is Group Policy Editor, is available in some versions of Vista; however, not in Vista Home Basic or Vista Home Premium and Basic is what your profile says you have. The same limitation applies to secpol.msc which is Security Policy Editor (which is essentially only a subset of gpedit.msc and adds no additional features). For more information on both (if interested even though they don't apply to your system), see: What is the difference between gpedit.msc and secpol.msc? and Windows Group Policy Editor GPEDIT..

The purpose of these features is essentially for use in domain environments and since the Home Editions cannot be connected to domains, it was deemed unnecessary to include the functions - even if they could be useful in many ways although not connected to a domain (though not often, I do sometimes use them with my Vista Business Edition). The convenient thing (or perhaps better stated as the workaround) is that, for the most part, the features in these functions can still be controlled in a more complicated and far less intuitive (and somewhat more risky) way using the Registry Editor as long as there are instructions available for what you want to accomplish and/or you REALLY know what you are doing.

Unfortunately, many tutorials or articles provide only the gpedit.msc instructions and fail to include the registry alternatives - so getting what you need to do accomplished sometimes takes a bit more research (or luck in finding the right tutorial). If you find a tutorial on this site (and there are hundreds of excellent ones both here and in sevenforums.com - many of which apply to Vista as well as W7), you'll probably be in luck because most I've seen do include both options (and sometimes even other ways) to accomplish the objective covered by the tutorial (when that's the way to do the task) and where there are registry changes suggested, many include buttons with merges that will do all the hard work for you automatically with a single click of a button. In essence, that's what Richard gave you to simplify things.

I hope this helps.

Good luck.

onmyway1 · Nov 24, 2010

Hello again.

Thankyou both so much for your replies. I'm amazed at your deep knowledge!

I clicked on the link you sent Richard, and then clicked on run, and it seemed all ok, but I am still able to delete the history by right clicking on the page on the left hand history box. What could I have done wrong?

I'm sorry to be a pain!

niemiro · Nov 24, 2010

Hello!

No problems! You should see the stuff that we think is deep, and we struggle with! Now that is deep knowledge! Just to confirm, you ran the registry script on the correct account, and it said success, and on the same account you cannot delete all of the history, but you can right click and click Delete. Can you please confirm that the Safety > Delete Browsing History is greyed out (or not)

Thanks!

onmyway1 · Nov 24, 2010

Hi again

Thanks for your reply. I found the 'delete browsing history' greyed out, in the tools menu. Yes, I ran the registry script on the correct account.

Thanks so much for your time

niemiro · Nov 24, 2010

Just tried it on my computer. You can delete it as well, even with it locked down! Hmmm! Give me a few minutes to try and lock down that as well.

onmyway1 · Nov 24, 2010

Hi

I'm really sorry, I just realised I did it on the wrong account. So sorry for wasting your time! Thanks for all your help...

Claire

niemiro · Nov 25, 2010

No problems Claire! I am still looking into it, and exactly what you described happened on my computer. I am perfectly happy to continue investigating if there is a problem remaining. Thank you for being so polite and patient, it really helps us!

Richard

onmyway1 · Dec 3, 2010

Hi again

Thanks Richard. I did actually try it in the correct account but it's still allowing me to delete aswell. I'm not sure if I did something wrong...

Thanks for your help anyway.

Best wishes

Claire

mstan · Nov 15, 2011

Richard,
Thanks. Your "disabling delete history function" worked for me. If I want to enable this function in the future, how do I do it? (I am familiar with editting the registry.)
OS- Vista Home Premuim 32 bit
Marie

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