VanguardLH wrote:
Ed Cryer wrote:
VanguardLH wrote:
Ed Cryer wrote:
I clear Firefox weekly; Options/ Privacy & Security/ clear data cache,
clear history.
Why keep the local data at all? Configure Firefox to purge its local
data on its exit.
I use IE once in a blue moon, but clear it weekly for tidiness.
Enable its option under Advanced - Security to flush its local data on
exit. It mostly works but I have found some items lingering.
Of course, if a web browser crashes, it cannot execute its exit routines
hence the usefulness of 3rd party cleanup tools.
I've been clearing through Control Panel, and always get the Comodo
prompt. This is the *only* Comodo prompt I ever get.
From now on I shall clear through IE itself.
Use CCleaner. You can run it from a command line (ccleaner.exe /auto).
Then create a shortcut using that command, like in a toolbar in the
Windows taskbar or in the Start menu under a folder, say, for
Maintenance. Alternatively, you could use the command line for a
scheduled event in Task Scheduler. I do both: sometimes I want an
immediate flush and I also want a scheduled flush.
There's also BleachBit. I haven't use it. I remember trialing it but
it was missing some features of CCleaner, like an option to omit files
less than 24 hours old in the Recycle Bin or %temp% folder. I don't
know if BleachBit lends itself to running from the command line (to run
via shortcut to run a profile of objects to clean or can be scheduled).
Let the software and computer do the work. That's what it's for. If I
had to rotate the drum in the laundry washer, I wouldn't need the washer
and could use an old tub and washboard to manually clean my clothes.
Have you ever been hit by "Now then, that website I was at earlier today
- where was it? Was it in www.xxx or wwww.yyy or what?"
Well, I have; and I've found that a look through Firefox's history often
gets me back there.
And I'm not short of disc space.
I've never heard of Bleachbit, but CCleaner I use often enough. I've
listened to many discussions about its reliability, and it's never let
me down personally.
So elect not to purge Firefox's history on exit. You haven't even
bothered to look at the cleanup settings, have you? Else you would've
already known you could elect what types of data to purge.
So what happens when /YOU/ purge Firefox's local data for that weekly
cleanup routine? Well, the same scenario hits. Hmm, what was that
place I visited just before I chose to manually delete the history? You
said you do the manual cleanup once per week. Why not let a scheduled
task do the same?
CCleaner (and probably BleachBit) just let you delete history. They
don't let you choose a range of history to keep or delete. Internet
Explorer has the option of how long to keep history, like deleting stuff
older than, say, 3 days. Firefox has it, too; however, the choices of
what to delete are limited: last 1/2/4 hours, today, and everything.
Google Chrome has a similar choice set for how long to keep history.
Tis not true when using CCleaner or other external cleaners.
There are probably extensions for Firefox and Chrome that will better
manage your history. Since Firefox includes some features that are
available only using extensions in Chrome, I hunted around for settings
that may be available in about
:config that could affect history
retention, and found:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.history_expire_days
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.hi...xpire_days_min
They might be of interest to you. For me, I just have Firefox purge all
its local data on its exit. These are old settings and Mozillazine is
known for not keeping their pages up to date. Those settings are not
defined (do not exist) in my FF v63; however, if the settings are still
honored, their absence means the default values are used and you have to
create (define) them to use non-default values.