deleting address bar URLs

[Guest]

I'd like to be able to delete individual address bar items (URLs) with a
simple keyboard shortcut. With Mozilla, I can do this by pointing at the URL
and hitting SHIFT+DEL. In IE, it looks like you have to either edit the
registry, or download a tool, or do something else which is not quite as
easy. Is there a keyboard shortcut to do this?

Thanks.

PS - this is on IE7 on Vista, but I think it's the same question for
previous versions of IE as well.

 

[Don Varnau]

Hi,
I would not be surprised if the TypedURLs (registry) key is the same in
Vista as Win95. But, I'm not running Vista, so that's just speculation. ;-)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=157729
I don't think there is a quick, easy way to clear selected URLs.

It might be easier to limit that drop-down list to URLs you use very
frequently by typing most URLs in via File> Open or Ctrl+o. Only URLs typed
into the Address Bar are saved in the TypedURLs list.

Hope this helps,
Don
[MS MVP- IE]

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply. It would be good if MS could consider implementing a
shortcut way to delete these URLs from the address bar in a future release of
IE. It just doesn't seem like a good thing to have to edit the registry to do
that. The most natural and user-friendly way of entering URLs is to type them
into the address bar. Having to go through the File-Open dialog or using
CTRL+O to enter a URL is not really the natural way to enter an address. That
presupposes that you know ahead of time that you don't want to keep that URL
in the address bar history. The case I find most often is that I mistype a
URL, and just want to delete that. Or, I enter a URL that I think is correct
(like *.com when it's *.net) and I want to delete the wrong address
afterwards. I think IE7 has some nice improvements, and Vista does, too.
Maybe this is just one little nit from a long-time Mozilla / Firefox user,
but if there are many more like this, then I'll go back to using something
other than IE.

Hi,
I would not be surprised if the TypedURLs (registry) key is the same in
Vista as Win95. But, I'm not running Vista, so that's just speculation. ;-)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=157729
I don't think there is a quick, easy way to clear selected URLs.

It might be easier to limit that drop-down list to URLs you use very
frequently by typing most URLs in via File> Open or Ctrl+o. Only URLs typed
into the Address Bar are saved in the TypedURLs list.

Hope this helps,
Don
[MS MVP- IE]

I'd like to be able to delete individual address bar items (URLs) with a
simple keyboard shortcut. With Mozilla, I can do this by pointing at the URL
and hitting SHIFT+DEL. In IE, it looks like you have to either edit the
registry, or download a tool, or do something else which is not quite as
easy. Is there a keyboard shortcut to do this?

Thanks.

PS - this is on IE7 on Vista, but I think it's the same question for
previous versions of IE as well.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I'd like to be able to delete individual address bar items (URLs) with a
simple keyboard shortcut. With Mozilla, I can do this by pointing at the URL
and hitting SHIFT+DEL. In IE, it looks like you have to either edit the
registry, or download a tool, or do something else which is not quite as
easy. Is there a keyboard shortcut to do this?

No and except for the TypedURLs (which it isn't clear that that's what
you are really concerned about) there is nothing completely reliable
for doing it either. That's why there is only a KB article which tells
you how to delete *all* History, even though each History item actually
has a Delete in its right-click menu. I suspect it is a bit of a hit or miss
prospect. For years I have been speculating each time I answer this
question that perhaps it is a case of insufficient recursion which would
make the feature unreliable, so in that case I have been suggesting
that people who want the feature to work might be able to help it along
by providing their own recursion. So far, if anybody has tried it they
haven't bothered reporting how successful they were. Perhaps you
would like to try? ; )

Thanks.

PS - this is on IE7 on Vista, but I think it's the same question for
previous versions of IE as well.

As a matter of fact, I think they have started documenting deletion
as if it was thought that it might work better than before.
OTOH that may just be a sign of an optimistic documentation writer. ; }
In any case, an even better reason to try testing it with IE7.


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

 

[Guest]

I have to admit that I don't know what recursion has to do with this. Maybe
you could explain? But, in any event, I'm just a poor dumb user who sees a
feature in Mozilla and would like to see the same thing in IE. Obviously,
Mozilla has this figured out. I don't see why it's so hard for MS to figure
it out, too. OK, maybe it's not a very high priority requirement, I can
understand that. But from what you're saying, there have been others over the
years who have expressed this same requirement. I mean, really, how hard
would it be to implement this?