Clear search box history in Windows

There are a couple different ways to do this.

Method 1. If you are looking to just delete a few of the search terms in your history.

From your recently searched history box, highlight the term you would like to delete by hovering your mouse over it. Once highlighted, hit the delete key on your keyboard. Poof its gone! But this can be time consuming.


Method 2. If you want to delete all of your search terms from your history box

Go to the start menu and open up regedit, then browse to 

CODE: SELECT ALL

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\WordWheelQuery

From there right-click the WordwheelQuery folder and delete it. All Gone! Now you have a clean slate.

How to enable/disable/clear Windows 7 Explorer search history

If you're tired of Windows storing your previous file searches and then manually having to hover over each and press the delete key or maybe you just like a bit of privacy, this tip is for you.



To permanently disable Windows Explorer search history - (.reg)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer]
"DisableSearchBoxSuggestions"=dword:00000001

To re-enable Windows Explorer search history - (.reg)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer]
"DisableSearchBoxSuggestions"=-

To clear Windows Explorer search history - (.reg)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\WordWheelQuery]

If like me you have CCleaner and want that to clean it for you, just save the following as winapp2.ini and place it next to the CCleaner executable.

Code:

[Search History]
LangSecRef=3002
Default=True
RegKey1=HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\WordWheelQuery