Modern gadgets are capable of recording user activity for some time. To view the history on your computer, you need to check the various folders for downloading and deleting files. You can also study the laptop log. Users are provided with special programs that allow them to capture actions performed on files.
Browser history
Various browsers have special places where you can view your browsing history. The user can use the key combination Ctrl + H. He can also delete information about which pages were visited.
To view the history of visiting sites on your computer, you need to go to the browser and go to the general menu, which is represented by different icons:
- Google and Yandex - horizontal stripes in the top panel on the right.
- Internet Explorer - star in the right corner. A window will open where you need to find the “Journal” tab.
- Opera - click on the “Tools” button.
- Mozilla Firefox - click on the horizontal sticks icon and open the entire magazine.
Each option allows you to view the history of recent actions. You can find out where the user visited at a certain hour, day, week. You can delete history completely or for a specified period. It is also possible to restore closed tabs.
If you have a Google account, then the user's activity can be checked through this service. You can view your browsing history in two ways:
- Through the settings, if you go to the “My Actions” tab.
- Use the address bar and type history. google.com. A page will open where you need to select the “Show actions” option.
PC activity tracking
There are three ways to see how the computer was used. The first is possible through “Recent Documents”. You can display files using the following scheme:
- Right-click on “Start”.
- Select the “Properties” line.
- By default, the Start menu item should open. If this does not happen, then you need to switch to it yourself.
- Check the box "Confidentiality".
After this, the user will be able to observe programs and files that were used recently. They will be displayed in the main menu.
The second way to view activity on your computer is to go to the Trash. Some files may be deleted during operation, but not all users delete them from their computer.
The third way is to look at your Downloads folder. It is possible that another person downloaded programs or files. This folder automatically saves similar actions. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + J.
You can view your browsing history through a new file attribute that shows the last date of modification. You need to right-click on the desired document. Select “Properties” in the drop-down window. The user must remember the date and perform the following actions:
- Use the search by pressing Win + F.
- In the last line where the magnifying glass is drawn, click the mouse.
- A window with past requests will appear. At the bottom there are search attributes, you must select “Date modified”.
- Indicate the date.
The folders that were opened during this time will be presented.
Journal on computer
The Windows operating system has a log where work data is collected. Through it, the user can find the history on the computer and track when the gadget is turned on and off.
Open magazine:
- Press the key combination Win + R.
- Enter the name Eventvwr.
- A window called “Event Viewer” will open.
- Go to the Start menu and type Event Viewer. There is a program with a similar name, you need to open it.
- Select the Event Viewer window.
- Select "Windows History". This will allow you to view the operating time of your computer.
In the Log, you can view the application launch history. To do this, you need to go to a folder with the same name. The presented version will contain the programs that are launched, as well as the time of their use and last update. To view data about turning on and off the PC, you need to find EventLog.
Using programs
The user can install the Executed programs list program on the computer. It starts when the computer is running and monitors actions. If you open it, it will show a list of your visit history, as well as the time of the actions performed.
If you need to track which folders were opened on your laptop, you can download the LastActivityView application. The program is easy to use, but collects more information.
You can also use the NeoSpY program. It tracks:
- keys that were used;
- monitor screenshots taken;
- copied files;
- actions on the Internet and instant messengers;
- files that were copied to a flash drive were printed;
- changes in system files, installed programs.
There is a History Viewer program that is used to track the actions of employees at their work computer. It shows the complete history in graphs.
If a child uses a computer, you can purchase the Parental Control program. It is installed on a home computer and coordinates the child’s actions on the laptop. It is possible to set a timer for working with the gadget, block sites that children should not visit.
You came home, rested and decided to check your email. But when we approached the computer, we noticed that the mouse was out of place, the keyboard was moved, and in general the case was warm. Considering that everyone at home has their own car, this fact seems strange. Why did you use your computer and for what purpose? This is still unknown. But in this article you will learn exactly how to view history on your computer.
View your browsing history in the browser
Let's face it: the first thing you want to check is your list of visited sites. To do this, open your browser (I use Google Chrome, for example) and select “History” in “Options.”
Also, the list of visited sites is called up by simultaneously pressing Ctrl+H or by writing “chrome://history/” in the address bar.
Reference! To view history in other browsers, the same methods are used (except for entering the address “chrome://history/” in the line).
If anxiety and mistrust have settled in your soul, regularly clear the list of visited sites. 
Viewing Log Files
All actions performed on the computer are recorded and documented. We only need to refer to this data to find out the information of interest.
Application log
This log stores information about all programs and games running on the computer. What is most important is that the exact time of launch and use is recorded. To open it, find the “Administration” item in the “Control Panel” and select “Computer Management”.
Recently modified files
Also in Windows you will find recently created, viewed and edited files. To do this, simultaneously press Win + R on your keyboard and enter “recent” in the text field.
In the window that opens, you can view your recent files.
How to restrict access to a computer and set a trap
If you are not interested in who used your computer, when and why, but it’s just unpleasant, set a password. Go to “Settings” – “Accounts” – “Sign-in Options”. Here click on the “Add” button and enter the desired combination.
Personal data is now harder to access.
All modern browsers support the function of saving the user's history of visiting websites in a browsing log. It is active by default and daily collects data about the Internet resources you have visited. In this article I will tell how to find out website visiting history, and how to clean it.
This feature has both positive and negative aspects.
Positive:
- If you want to find a previously viewed site, then you do not need to go to search engines again and look for it there. Just go to your browsing history and view the list of sites from the archive.
- You are the boss. Your subordinates are lazy assholes who are always on VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. The visit log is your evidence that will help catch scoundrels, shame them and force them to work and not engage in nonsense.
- You are a caring parent of a teenager, whose interests can be easily found out by looking at the history of website visits.
Negative:
- You are an office worker who likes to surf VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. What's the big deal? Everyone does it. And this “ghoul” (chief) is always yelling and swearing in bad words. How does he even know where I am sitting? But he knows - from the visitor log (or - spyware).
- You are a teenager bursting with energy. And here are these annoying parents with their teachings. Moreover, from somewhere they know about the adult sites you visit. It's all from there!
View your browsing history on your computer
In order to find out and see what sites were visited on your computer, you need to go to the browser and use the key combination Ctrl+H.
Despite the fact that all browsers are different, the hotkey combinations are the same. Standards no matter what. So it doesn't matter whether you use Opera, Google Chrome, Yandex browser, Mozilla Firefox, or Internet Explorer, this method will work.
If for some reason you cannot press Ctrl+H. Well, let's say you were digging ketchup out from under your keyboard and accidentally knocked out the "H" key. Well, could this happen, theoretically? Then you should go to your browser settings and click “History”.
Screenshot from Google Chrome:
In Opera, Firefox, Yandex browser, you should do the same. In some cases, a variant of the item is possible "Magazine", instead of "Story".
View visited sites in IE
For Internet Explorer the technology is somewhat different. You need to click on the asterisk, which is located in the browser navigation (mine is in the upper right corner).
Logs in different browsers are similar to each other and allow you to view the history of visited sites depending on the day, week, month. In Chrome, for example, the following are available:
- For today;
- For yesterday;
- During the week;
- Per month.
For convenience, the magazine has a search field that can be used to finding the page you are interested in.
How to delete your browsing history
If you are not happy with the fact that someone can invade your privacy in this way, then you can take action - delete browsing history from browsing history in the browser.
In order to do this, you need to go to the visit log (Ctrl+H) and press "Clear browsing history".
In the pop-up window, you should select the time for which you want to clear, and also specify the elements:
How to clear your browsing history in Internet Explorer
In order to clear browsing history in IE, you need to go to settings and click "Browser Options".
In the tab "Are common" find "Delete…".
Confirm the operation by pressing the button again "Delete" in the window that opens.
I hope this article helped you understand viewing your browsing history, as well as clearing the log.
Some PC users may want to know what happened on the system in the past: when the computer turned on, what applications were launched, browser history, etc. This may be needed, for example, by parents who control how their children use the computer or for other reasons. How to view history on a computer in several ways will be discussed in the text below.
The Windows operating system has a standard tool that allows you to obtain information about how the computer was used and what happened to the system (for example, what errors occurred).
You can view the history of actions on your computer using the appropriate tool called “Event Log”. To launch it, just perform the following series of actions:
After completing this action, a window will open. The left side of the screen displays event categories, while the right side displays the names and descriptions of the events themselves.
Find out what programs and applications were launched
There are quite a lot of categories, and most of them are of no use to the average user. Most often, a simple PC user is interested in what applications were launched. It's quite easy to find out. Relevant information is contained in the category “Windows Logs” - “Applications”.
If you go there, you can see the history on the computer of what was launched. For example, in the image above you can see that the Skype update service was launched. You can also find out at what time this happened and what the result of this action was. After these simple steps, you can view the history on your computer.
If, in turn, you want to find out what applications were installed, you can look at the “Installation” section. It displays information about the installation of not only third-party programs, but also services built into the system.
Checking running applications using a special program
However, working with the Event Log is quite difficult. Therefore, this method may not be suitable for some. However, there is a solution - you can use one of the third-party special applications to find the history on your computer.
For example, there is a simple program “Executed programs list”, which, when launched, runs in the background (that is, it does not manifest itself in any way until the user opens it). Using it, you can find out which applications were launched on your PC. At the same time, it presents information in the form of a simple list, which indicates the location of programs and the time they were launched.
If you need to know not only which programs were launched, but also which folders the user entered, then you can use another application - “ LastActivityView". The corresponding program is as minimalistic and simple as the first, but collects much more information.
How to find out the ON/OFF time of a computer
Some users are interested in viewing the time the computer turned on and off. This can be done using the same Windows event log. After launching the appropriate tool, you will need to go to “System”.
Once in the desired subcategory, you will need to find the item whose source value is “Kernel-General” - it is responsible for indicating the start and shutdown times of the PC.
The description of the corresponding event should be “System startup (or shutdown) time...”. After this message, it indicates when the PC turned on or off.
We look at the changed files on the PC
Now let's see the history of modified files on the PC. This is even easier to do than finding out the history of actions on your computer. For this you will need:
To find out which files on your computer were edited over a certain period of time, you can use the “LastActivityView” program already mentioned above.
Checking the history of visiting sites in the browser
The last thing to consider is how to view your browsing history in your browser. But here it should immediately be noted that the features of the process depend on the specific web browser that is installed on the computer. There are a lot of them, so we will consider performing this operation only using the example of the two most popular ones - Google Chrome (and based on Chromium) and Firefox.
To view the history in the Google Chrome browser (as well as Yandex.Browser, Opera, etc.) you need:
- Launch the browser itself;
- Execute the keyboard shortcut CTRL+H.
After completing the appropriate actions, a page will be displayed containing information about all open pages in the web browser.
To view your activity history in the Firefox browser, you need to perform a slightly different series of steps:
- Open menu;
- Select “Log” – “Show entire log”.
A window will open in which you can find out which sites and pages have been opened in the browser over the entire time. It is also possible to find out what was opened for a certain period (for example, over the last day or week).
But, of course, you should take into account that the history in absolutely any browser on a computer is very easy to clear. Therefore, if the “history” is viewed with the purpose of finding out what a child is doing at the computer, then there is a high probability that the parent will not see any information there at all.
In this case, it is better to install a special application through which you can collect reliable information about which sites the user visits. One such application is NeoSpy. The program has a hidden installation function, thanks to which no one, except the one who installed it, will know that it works (this is true, at least for not very savvy PC users). There is a lot of information on the Internet about how to install the application and how to use it.
Video on how to view history on your computer
These are the main ways to view your activity history on your computer and in your browser. In most cases, they are enough to get the most complete picture of what happened on the PC over a certain time.
In contact with
Some gadget users do not know how to view history in the Yandex or Google Chrome browser on Android. These search engines tend to store links to web pages that have been visited on your phone. It's useful to have access to it.
Why is history saved?
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This function may be very useful in some situations. It often happens that a user accidentally visits some resource on the Internet and sees useful information there, but forgets to add the page to “Favorites” in Google, Yandex or another browser. Thanks to his browsing history, he will be able to open this site again at any time.
If you find some Internet resource useful or simply interesting, it is strongly recommended to save it to your “Favorites”. Thanks to this action, you can return to an interesting page a little faster than using the history of visiting sites.
In some cases, users do not want to save this information because someone else will be able to find and examine it. That is why browser developers have provided a function for completely clearing saved views, which works on the same principle as in Chrome.
How to view or clear the list
Now about how to view the story on a tablet or smartphone.
- You need to turn on the browser and click on the cross to display a new tab.
- As a result, 3 icons should appear on the left side.
- In our case, you should click on the clock icon located in the middle.
- After this, a complete list of visited pages on the Internet should open.
To erase any item from this list, press and hold your finger on it for a while. As a result of this action, a drop-down menu should open, where you will need to select the “Delete” item.
- Turn on the browser and click on the button in the form of three vertical dots. It is located in the upper right corner.
- A drop-down menu should appear where you should select “Settings”.
- Next, you need to go to the “Privacy” item and use the “Clear data” function.
- A new window will open where you should check the box next to the “History” option. Other parameters can be left unchanged.
- To complete, you need to use the “Clear data” button.
