Safer Surfing with Netscape Navigator Page 2

Page 2

In order to completely clear all URLs:

The following instructions require editing the Windows Registry. This can potentially harm the system if the wrong entries are edited or deleted. Make sure you have current backups of your system before proceeding. Consult Windows Help if needed.

1. Close Navigator.
2. From the Windows Start menu, select Run..., type: regedit.exe (in Windows 95 and 98) or regedt32.exe (in Windows NT 4.0), and press ENTER.
3. Click the plus sign beside the following hierarchy:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
-Software
-Netscape Navigator
4. Select "URL History" on the left.
5. On the right, clear each entry. In order to do this, double-click in the Name column of a line, then delete whatever appears in the Value data field of the dialog box; click OK to save the changes. Repeat this for each line.
6. Exit the registry editor by clicking Regedit|Exit.
If this does not work, it is possible that the Windows 3.1 version of Navigator is installed. In that case, try using the Windows 3.1 version of Navigator instructions to clear the URL history.

Operating Systems: Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0
Product and Version: Communicator 4.0 - 4.05

Only the last 15 URLs you typed into the Location Bar text field will be listed. Since only the last entries you typed are stored, the easiest method of clearing unwanted entries is to type a number of URLs to displace those currently listed.

In order to completely clear all URLs:

Clearing the location bar URL History involves editing a Netscape data file. Editing this file incorrectly could prevent Communicator from launching or working properly. Before you edit the , make a back up copy of the file.

1. Go, on your hard drive, to your Communicator profile folder. If you have installed in
the default location, it is likely located here:
C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\{Your_Profile_Name}\ .
2. Find the prefs.js file.
3. Copy this file to a safe location on a floppy disk or elsewhere on your hard drive.

After making a copy of the file, you can edit the original:
1. Close Communicator.
2. Open a text editor such as Windows Notepad. If you have not edited your Windows 95 Start menu, you should be able to open Notepad by clicking on Start|Programs|Accessories|Notepad.
3. In Notepad, click File|Open... and browse to the prefs.js file. Open the prefs.js file.
4. Look for lines which look like this:

user_pref("browser.url_history.URL_4", "http://help.netscape.com/");

user_pref("browser.url_history.URL_5", "developer.netscape.com/");

user_pref("browser.url_history.URL_6", "ftp://ftp.netscape.com/")

5. Delete only the lines which begin with "user_pref("browser.url_history.URL".
6. When you have successfully deleted these lines, make sure you have left no spaces between lines, and then save the file by clicking File|Save As.
7. Save as "prefs.js"

Open Communicator and the entries should be gone.

Operating Systems: Windows (all versions)
Communicator 4.06 - 4.7

1. Open Communicator.
2. From the Edit menu, select "Preferences."
3. Click on "Navigator" on the left so it is selected.
4. On the right, click the "Clear Location Bar" button.
5. Click OK.