I have a (probably dumb) computer question I really need help with.

[lizzieforkerry]

Is there any way to find out what web sites have been visited on your computer if the "history" has been cleared? My friend's kid keeps erasing the history and now she is starting to wonder why. Thanks!!

[faithnotgreed]

1. hi

i am of no help with that except to recommend you post this in the computer group
if you havent already....
you can find it under du groups then personal interests (i think it is)

someone there will answer you im sure or you can ask them to pm you

[lizzieforkerry]

2. Thank you!! I wasn't sure if anyone was in the computer group this late

and thought there was a chance someone here knew how. I will post it over there, too.

[henslee]

3. maybe the kid did not erase the google address bar auto complete

or any address bar auto complete for that matter. Also check out to see if any cookies are still there. It's probably porn. Kids will be kids. Best thing to do is create "zones" -- block sites that are quetionable.

[lizzieforkerry]

6. OK- so how does she check that?

We've looked for cookies but haven't seen any. We checked them by going to the Tools and looking under Internet Options- cookies. Is there another place to look?

[henslee]

17. At the moment, don't recall. I will look on my pc. Someone here knows

or maybe google clear + google + address bar or "autocomplete" or whatever. Good luck. If I find I will post.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

4. I believe you find the History tab first.

Then, under the days History is recorded (a changeable amount), just enter the amount of days you would like to find out about. I believe this should work.

[lizzieforkerry]

5. Yes, she has it set for 30 days but her daughter keeps erasing it

and we can't find where she can get the info back. I know kids can be kids but she is only 10 and acting kind of strange lately. She doesn't want to just block everything because she doesn't want to drive the problem deeper underground. She wants to be able to talk to her about it.

[johnnie]

7. Not in history but

She can go to her main drive/ windows/ temporary internet files and start clicking on some of the stuff. There will be a bunch of files in there, tell your friend to look for html files.

[lizzieforkerry]

8. OK- walk me through it. Is the main drive the start button?

I don't see a just "windows" icon.?

[johnnie]

9. Double click on "My Computer"

Then you will see the main drive (C drive most likely), double click that. Then look at the folders in there and look for "Windows"..doublr click that one and look for "Temporary Internet files" then double click that.

[ContraBass Black]

10. The arrangement may be different for different versions of Windows.

[lizzieforkerry]

12. There wasn't anything in the file. Is there anyway to set it up so

information will be put there in the future? Sorry if I am really starting to bug you at this point!!

[ContraBass Black]

13. If the kid is smart, she'll clean that out too.

In which case, the things you CAN do are more complicated.

[hunter]

11. This isn't a computer problem, this is a family problem.

Letting a ten year old kid wander around the internet unsupervised is a VERY bad idea.

Something is wrong here.

[lpbk2713]

14. Where is the PC located?

It might help to set it up in the living room with the monitor facing where people are most often.

[BlueWolf]

15. If it's Internet Explorer, there is a way....

Microsoft isn't real good when it comes to privacy- they record everything. In your case, that could come in handy. Internet Explorer records every website that has been visited in 2 locations- in the history folder, and in a hiden file called an index.dat file. When you click "clear history" in IE, you only clear the history folder, but everything in the index.dat file remains. No one knows why Microsoft did this, but when you really want to know what websites someone has been going to, this is the file to check. This file is usually huge, and not in a readable format, so you generally need a program to display the file's contents for you. There's a number of free programs out there that do this. One that works fairly well can be downloaded here: www.acesoft.net

After you install and run the program, click the button on the far right that says "index.dat". It will show you all the websites ever visited in Internet Explorer under the user name that you're logged into Windows with.

[BlueWolf]

16. Sorry, link to program didn't work, here's good link

The link to the index.dat viewer in the above post didn't go to the right page. Here's the direct link to the program I was talking about: http://www.acesoft.net/index.dat%20viewer/index.dat_viewer.htm">http://www.acesoft.net/index.dat%20viewer/index.dat_viewer.htm

[DainBramaged]

18. If she's learned to delete the history and cookies (very easy btw)

She's way more savvy than you and your friend are (it's right in the tools menu at the top of the browser internet options, and you can test her by extending the days history is kept). Buy internet blocking software, easiest way. Don't go to places in your computer you aren't familiar with. Computer cop is very good, Bad Subtract was great, but software not supported by it's company anymore.

[purr]

19. There are computer monitoring software available..

It keeps logs of websites, chat logs, emails, etc that she goes to.

[China_cat]

20. A simple way

is to simply tell the kid that if she clears her history again, she'll lose computer privileges and it doesn't matter if she has homework, she'll have to do it the hard way. With books.

And then carry through.