There are many things that Internet users want to keep private, ranging from what sites they visit to what information they enter into online forms. The reasons for this can vary, and in many cases they may be for a personal motive, for security, or something else entirely. Regardless of what drives the need, it is nice to be able to clear your tracks, so to speak, when you are done browsing.
Opera 10 for Windows makes this very easy, allowing you to clear the private data of your choosing in a few quick and easy steps.
First, open your Opera browser.
The Tools Menu
Click on Tools in your Opera menu, located at the top of your browser window. When the drop-down menu appears, click on the Delete Private Data... choice.
Delete Private Data Warning Dialog
A dialog window labeled Delete private data will now be displayed, overlaying your browser window. The warning message in this window informs you that all open tabs will be closed and all ongoing file transfers will be interrupted once the deletion process has begun.
Click on the arrow labeled Detailed Options.
Delete Private Data Details - Part 1
At this point, you will see the full Delete Private Data dialog box, with details, overlaying your browser window. The user is given several options at this point regarding what types of data he or she would like to delete. If the box next to a menu option is checked, that particular data type will be cleared upon clicking the Delete button.
It is imperative that you are aware of what each one of these choices means prior to doing anything here, or you may wind up erasing something important.
The list in the following steps gives a clear explanation of each item shown.
Delete Private Data Details - Part 2
- Delete temporary cookies: A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard drive when you visit certain web sites. Each cookie is used to tell a web server when you return to its web page. Cookies can be helpful in remembering certain settings that you have on a web site. Temporary cookies are those which are only saved during the current browsing session.
- Delete all cookies: These are the same as temporary cookies with the exception that they are saved on the hard drive even after the current browsing session has been terminated.
- Delete password protected pages and data: Password protected pages and data in this case refers to authentication credentials such as usernames and passwords used for logging in to certain web sites.
- Delete entire cache: Opera uses its cache to store images, pages, and URLs of recently visited web pages. By using the cache, the browser can load these pages must faster on subsequent visits to the site by loading the images, etc. locally from the cache rather than from the web server itself.
- Clear history of visited pages: Browsing history keeps a record of all web sites that you have visited. You can view this history by choosing Tools from the Opera menu and then selecting History.
Delete Private Data Details - Part 3
- Clear history of downloads: Opera keeps a record of all downloads that have taken place through the browser. You can view this history by choosing Tools from the Opera menu and then selecting Downloads, or by using the CTRL + J keyboard shortcut.
- Clear bookmark visited time: Opera keeps track of the exact date and time that you last visited each one of your Bookmarks. This date/timestamp can be seen by viewing a bookmark's properties via the browser's Manage Bookmarks interface.
- Clear all e-mail account passwords: Opera can be used to access most email accounts, including its very own web mail service. Login passwords for all email accounts that you have set up through the browser are stored.
- Clear Password Manager: Password Manager enables Opera to store user names and passwords the first time you enter them, and will automatically fill them in for you when you visit the same website(s) at a later date.
At the bottom of the Delete Private Data details window is a checkbox labeled Close all tabs. This option is checked by default. If you do not want your active tabs closing when you complete the deletion process, simply click on the box to remove the check mark. If left alone, your open tabs will close completely when you click on the Delete button.
Now that you understand the meaning behind each menu item, check those that you wish to be erased and be sure that any items you wish to keep intact are unchecked. Once you are ready, click on the Delete button and all of the item types that you selected will be cleared out.