IE6 won't display browser history!

Hi,

I've been having an annoying problem with IE6 under XP for some weeks now, I don't know when exactly or why it started: while most people try by all means to get rid of their browser history (index.dat files), I would give a lot to be able to keep track of the pages I've visited, but when I klick the "history" button, the history panel opens, but all I see ist an index.dat file (0 kb) and the folder "History.IE5" (why is it IE5, not 6??) with another index.dat file in it (480 kb that one). Impossible to open or visualize any of them.

Could a program like "system purify" which I used for a while, be the culprit? I've tried quite a number of programs of that kind...

I've tried to install IE6 again (on top of the "old" one), but to no avail. Sadly the problem isn't recent enough to solve it by doing a "system restore "...sniff...

Is there anybody who knows a solution?

Thanks for reading - maybe helping - me,

Irlandaise from Normandy

 

Hi irlandaise
Welcome to the boards!
Any chance you'e running McAfee Virus Scan - if you switch off the ActiveX detection, History comes back. Apparently it's a known bug?

Daizy

 

Go to Tools - Options - General. Do you have "Days to Keep" set to 0? If not, and if Daizy's suggestion doesn't work, try running the Repair Tool.

 

Hello Daisy and Brett,

thanks for your replies,

Daisy, no, I don't use McAfee but Norton and I can't find anything in its settings that might affect IE history..?

Brett, I've always had the number of days to keep set to 25 days, sorry I didn't mention it, as it was maybe the most obvious solution... but IE acts just as if it was set to 0...

sigh...

bye,

Irlandaise from Normandy

 

And BTW - the IE6 Repair will fix some issues that a reinstall won't.

Also - as a sort of blind stab, you might try installing spider (see other threads for a link) and running it to remove all existing index.dat files so you get a clean start.

 

Hi,

thanks for your replies, I finally fixed the problem by reinstalling IE6 again, but this time I did it as described here http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;Q318378 , I deleted a registry key first which "uninstalls" IE, and this allows to do a real reinstallation from A to Z. That did the trick.

Bye from Normandy,

Irlandaise

 

Glad to hear that it's fixed and thanks for posting back