InPrivate Browsing in Internet Explorer

InPrivate Browsing in Internet Explorer header

 

What is InPrivate Browsing?

If you’re worried about tracking information being put on your computer while using Internet Explorer, you can enable or disable a feature called InPrivate Browsing.  While this feature is active in a window for Internet Explorer, all temporary Internet data you generate while using that window (such as cache data, cookies, and browsing history) will be deleted when you close the window.  It will also disable any add-ons that could be used to track your activity.

Remember, though, it will not keep websites, network authorities, your Internet provider, or anyone else from actively tracking where you go on the Internet.  You can use some of our other suggestions in this course to help with that, though.

How to turn on InPrivate Browsing (and turn it off)

  1. Double-click the icon for your Internet Explorer web browser to open it.

  2. Click the “Tools” icon in the top-right corner, move your mouse cursor over Safety, and click InPrivate Browsing.

  3. If you have the Menu Toolbar enabled, you can also click the Tools menu, and then click InPrivate Browsing.

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    (HINT: You can also hold down the “Control” and “Shift” keys, and then press the “P” key as a keyboard shortcut.)

  4. A new window will open in your web browser, and you will receive a message indicating that InPrivate Browsing has been turned on.  You will also see an “InPrivate” logo appear beside the web address bar in Internet Explorer windows that have InPrivate Browsing enabled.

    From here, you can browse the Internet as you normally would.

  5. To disable InPrivate Browsing, simply close all windows that have it enabled by clicking the “X” button in the top-right corner of each of them.

There!  Now you know how to enable or disable InPrivate Browsing in Internet Explorer!  Next, we’ll cover how to delete your cache and browsing history while using Internet Explorer.

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