Browser Cleaning Options

The Internet Browsers Cleaning Options page groups cleaning switches for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Chrome. Every browser has the same basic choices: cache, cookies, history, and form data.

Common switches

Switch	What it removes	Default	When to run
Cache Folder	Downloaded page images and files	On	Weekly
Cookies	Cookies, including any saved passwords	On	Monthly
URL / Visited History	List of websites you visited	On	Monthly
Form History / Form Data	Saved text you typed into forms	Off	Monthly
Downloads History	List of downloaded files	On	Monthly
Typed URLs	Addresses typed into the address bar	Off	Monthly
Stored Passwords	Passwords the browser saved	Off	Only if you want them gone
History & Thumbnails	Visited sites plus their thumbnail images	On	Monthly

Browser notes

Offers cache, cookies, typed URL history, visited URL history, autocomplete form history, and stored passwords. The cache grows quickly — cleaning it weekly recovers the most disk space.

Offers cache, cookies, URL history, form history, and downloads history.

Offers cache, cookies, URL history, form history, download history, and global/form history (which also clears saved passwords).

Offers cache, cookies, visited links, form history, and history & thumbnails.

What to think about

Clearing cookies signs you out of websites and removes saved passwords. You will need to log in again next time. This is expected and safe, but plan for it.

The cache is always the biggest win — browsers rebuild it automatically, so removing it is completely safe and recovers the most disk space.

Recommended schedule

Cache: weekly.
Cookies: monthly (they are useful to keep for a while).
History and form data: monthly.

Cleaning browser data affects all profiles for that browser on the current Windows user account.