BrowsingHistoryView v2.59 - View browsing history of your Web browsers Copyright (c) 2012 - 2024 Nir Sofer

See Also

• ChromeCacheView - Cache viewer for Google Chrome Web browser

Description

Versions History

• Version 2.59:
  • Fixed bug: BrowsingHistoryView crashed when trying to read the IE database (WebCacheV01.dat) on Windows 11 24H2.
• Version 2.58:
  • Fixed issue: When copying data to the clipboard or exporting to tab-delimited file, every line contained an empty field in the end of the line.
• Version 2.57:
  • Updated to read the history file of the latest Opera versions.
• Version 2.56:
  • Added option to choose another font (name and size) to display in the main window.
• Version 2.55:
  • Added 'Sort By' toolbar button.
• Version 2.54:
  • 'Copy QR Code' option - Added white space around the QR Code.
• Version 2.53:
  • Fixed to read the history of multiple profiles in Yandex and Vivaldi Web browsers.
  • Updated to stop the Web browsers history scan when you press the Esc key.
• Version 2.52:
  • The status bar now displays the current scanned history filename.
  • Fixed the quick-filter text-box to copy to the clipboard when pressing Ctrl+C.
• Version 2.51:
  • Added 'Visit Duration' column. This column is available only for Chrome and Chromium-based Web browsers.
  • Improved the 'Visited From' column in new versions of Chrome.
• Version 2.50:
  • Added option to change the sorting column from the menu (View -> Sort By). Like the column header click sorting, if you click again the same sorting menu item, it'll switch between ascending and descending order. Also, if you hold down the shift key while choosing the sort menu item, you'll get a secondary sorting.
• Version 2.48:
  • Added toolbar button to the 'Display QR Code' option.
  • Fixed bug: When using the /SaveDirect command-line option, the 'Visited From' column contained incorrect value.
• Version 2.47:
  • Added 'Copy QR Code' option (Under the Edit menu), which allows you to copy the QR Code image to the clipboard.
  • Updated to work properly in high DPI mode.
• Version 2.46:
  • Added support for Brave Web browser.
• Version 2.45:
  • Added 'Display QR Code' option (Under the View menu): When it's turned on, QR Code of the selected URL is displayed in the lower pane, and you can use QR Code Reader app on your Smartphone to instantly open the URL in the Web browser of your Smartphone.
• Version 2.41:
  • Fixed the /cfg command-line option to load the .cfg file from the current directory if full path is not specified.
• Version 2.40:
  • Added new date/time filter: 'Load history items from the following time range and date range (separately)'. For example... You can search browsing history items that their modified date is between 01/01/2019 - 01/01/2020 and their modified time is between 02:00 - 04:00.
• Version 2.36:
  • Added button on the toolbar to delete Chrome / Firefox history records.
• Version 2.35:
  • Added 'Delete Selected History Records' option (Ctrl+Delete), which allows you to delete individual history records of Chrome and Firefox Web browsers (Including Web browsers that use the same history database of Chrome/Firefox, like Waterfox, SeaMonkey, Vivaldi, and so on...)
  • Other Web browsers are not supported.
• Version 2.30:
  • Added new columns: 'History File' and 'Record ID'.
• Version 2.26:
  • Added 'Double-Click Action' option, which allows you to choose what to do when you double-click on history item - Open properties window or open the URL in Web browser.
• Version 2.25:
  • Added support for Waterfox Web browser.
• Version 2.21:
  • Added option to specify the time range in local time (Instead of GMT).
• Version 2.20:
  • BrowsingHistoryView now automatically detects the Chromium-based Edge Web browser.
• Version 2.17:
  • You can now specify environment variables in the history files of the 'Load history from the specified history files' option.
• Version 2.16:
  • Fixed to work with Firefox 61.0
• Version 2.15:
  • Added support for Pale Moon Web browser.
• Version 2.12:
  • Added new options to the 'Quick Filter' feature.
• Version 2.11:
  • The remote computer name ('Load history from remote computer' option ) is now saved in the .cfg file. Also, you can set the remote computer from command-line with /ComputerName command-line option.
• Version 2.10:
  • Added new option: 'Automatically stop the cache task of IE10/IE11/Edge for unlocking the database file.' If this option is turned on - BrowsingHistoryView automatically stops the 'CacheTask' Scheduled task to unlock the database file of IE10/IE11/Edge (WebCacheV01.dat).
  • When you use the 'Load history from remote computer' option, BrowsingHistoryView will stop the 'CacheTask' Scheduled task on the remote computer, so you'll be able to view the history of IE10/IE11/Edge remotely.
• Version 2.05:
  • Added 'Load history from remote computer' option in 'Advanced Options' window. Be aware that this option works only when you have full admin access to the remote computer. Also, the history of IE10/IE11 is only available before the user logged-on to the system, because after the log-on the history database of IE10/IE11 is locked.
  • Fixed bug: 'Copy Selected Items' worked improperly when setting the 'Unicode/Ascii Save Mode' to 'Always UTF-8'.
• Version 2.00:
  • Added 'Visit Type' column for Chrome and Firefox Web browsers. (Link, Typed URL, Bookmark, and so on)
• Version 1.95:
  • Added 'Quick Filter' feature (View -> Use Quick Filter or Ctrl+Q). When it's turned on, you can type a string in the text-box added under the toolbar and BrowsingHistoryView will instantly filter the history table, showing only lines that contain the string you typed.
• Version 1.91:
  • Fix bug: When using /SaveDirect command-line option, the file was always saved according to the default encoding, instead of using the selected encoding in Options -> Save File Encoding.
• Version 1.90:
  • Added support for Vivaldi Web browser.
  • When 'Load history from the specified profiles folder' option is selected, the folders combo-box is filled with the profiles folders stored in shadow copies of your hard drive. When loading history from shadow copies, you may find history items older than what you can find in your current system.
• Version 1.87:
  • Added secondary sorting support: You can now get a secondary sorting, by holding down the shift key while clicking the column header. Be aware that you only have to hold down the shift key when clicking the second/third/fourth column. To sort the first column you should not hold down the Shift key.
  • Fixed bug: BrowsingHistoryView crashed when using the find option while the last item was selected.
• Version 1.86:
  • You can now choose the desired encoding (ANSI, UTF-8, UTF-16) to save the csv/xml/text/html files. (Under the Options menu)
• Version 1.85:
  • Added new option to the 'Advanced Options' window: Load only URLs contain one of the specified strings (comma-delimited list).
  • Added new option to the 'Advanced Options' window: Don't load URLs that contain one of the specified strings (comma-delimited list).
• Version 1.81:
  • The 'Web Browser' column now displays 'Internet Explorer 10/11 / Edge' for items of IE10/IE11/Edge (In previous versions it displayed 'Internet Explorer 10')
• Version 1.80:
  • Added support for Yandex Web browser.
• Version 1.77:
  • The properties window is now larger and resizable.
• Version 1.76:
  • Added option to skip duplicate URLs that their visit time difference is less than xx seconds. (In 'Advanced Options' window) Sometimes, A web browser may record a Web page visit multiple times with a difference of a few seconds, even when the Web page was visited only once. This option allows you to hide these duplicate history records.
• Version 1.75:
  • Added support for Microsoft Edge/Project Spartan (On Windows 10).
  • Fixed issue: When Internet Explorer 10/11 was opened by multiple users, BrowsingHistoryView displayed all history records of IE 10/11 multiple times.
• Version 1.71:
  • Fixed issue: When loading large amount of history items, some actions, like selecting items and copying selected items to the clipboard were very slow.
• Version 1.70:
  • Added 'Typed Count' column (Only relevant to Chrome Web browser).
• Version 1.69:
  • Fixed issue: On some systems, BrowsingHistoryView failed to read the history of IE10/IE11 from WebCacheV01.dat
• Version 1.68:
  • BrowsingHistoryView now detects the portable version of Firefox if it's running in the background.
• Version 1.67:
  • Added 'URL Length' column.
• Version 1.66:
  • Added 'Load history items from the last xx minutes' to the 'Advanced Options' window.
  • Fixed bug: BrowsingHistoryView failed to remember the last size/position of the main window if it was not located in the primary monitor.
• Version 1.65:
  • Added support for Opera (Version 15 or later).
• Version 1.60:
  • Added 'Browser Profile' column, which displays the folder name of the Web browser profile (For Firefox and Chrome Web browsers).
• Version 1.55:
  • Added 'Save Configuration To File' and 'Load Configuration From File' options.
• Version 1.52:
  • Fixed bug: When getting history information from a remote computer and both local computer and remote computer have IE10 or IE11, BrowsingHistoryView displayed the IE10/IE11 history of the local computer... (Be aware that BrowsingHistoryView cannot display the IE10/IE11 history of a remote computer while the WebCacheV01.dat file on the remote computer is locked)
• Version 1.51:
  • Fixed to find the correct item when typing the string you want to search into the main List View.
• Version 1.50:
  • Added 'Load history from the specified history files' option in the 'Advanced Options' window.
• Version 1.44:
  • Fixed bug from v1.43: BrowsingHistoryView stopped working on Windows 2000.
• Version 1.43:
  • Fixed to display date/time values according to daylight saving time settings.
• Version 1.42:
  • Added /cfg command-line option, which instructs BrowsingHistoryView to use a config file in another location instead if the default config file, for example:
    BrowsingHistoryView.exe /cfg "%AppData%\BrowsingHistoryView.cfg"
• Version 1.41
  • Fixed a bug with displaying IDN URLs (URLs containing non-English characters) from Firefox history.
• Version 1.40
  • Added new data source in the 'Advanced Options' window: Load history from the specified custom folders. In this option, you can select the correct AppData folder, Local AppData folder, and the History folder of the profile you want to inspect.
• Version 1.36
  • Fixed the problem with the 'Advanced Options' window on Windows 2000.
• Version 1.35
  • Added 'Show Advanced Options On Start' option. You can turn off this option if you don't want that the 'Advanced Options' window will appear on every time that you run BrowsingHistoryView.
• Version 1.33
  • Improved the detection of AppData and Local AppData folders when reading the history from external drive.
• Version 1.32
  • Added secondary sorting: When clicking the 'Web Browser' column header, the list is sorted by the 'Web Browser' column, and then by the 'Visit Time' column.
• Version 1.31
  • Added option to get the history from Internet Explorer API, instead of reading the file directly. (Available only when loading the history of the current user).
• Version 1.30
  • Added improved support for Internet Explorer 10, which works smoothly and doesn't require to run BrowsingHistoryView as administrator. There is no need to execute BrowsingHistoryView with any additinal command-line option in order to read the locked file of IE10 (WebCacheV24.dat or WebCacheV01.dat), and the /UseVolumeShadowCopy command-line option added on v1.15 was removed from this version.
    Be aware that during browsing on IE10, you may get corrupted history result, because the database is not fully flushed to the disk.
    Also, be aware that BrowsingHistoryView cannot read a locked IE10 file on a remote network system.
• Version 1.27
  • Fixed bug: BrowsingHistoryView failed to load Firefox profile located on a drive letter which is different from the drive letter where the Windows profiles (c:\users ...) are located.
  • Fixed the flickering appeared while scrolling the history items.
• Version 1.26
  • Fixed bug: When exporting browser history data with /SaveDirect command-line option, BrowsingHistoryView added byte order mark of Unicode, while the file was saved as Ascii.
• Version 1.25
  • BrowsingHistoryView now reads the history of all profiles from Chrome and Chrome Canary Web browsers.
• Version 1.21
  • Fixed bug: BrowsingHistoryView displayed corrupted URLs from partially deleted records of Internet Explorer history file.
• Version 1.20
  • Added support for Chrome Canary and SeaMonkey Web browsers.
  • Added 'Mark Odd/Even Rows' option, under the View menu. When it's turned on, the odd and even rows are displayed in different color, to make it easier to read a single line.
• Version 1.16
  • Fixed bug: BrowsingHistoryView failed to read some of the history items of Internet Explorer 10.
• Version 1.15
  • Added support for Internet Explorer 10 (WebCacheV24.dat or WebCacheV01.dat). There are some limitations and problems with this version of Internet Explorer. See the 'Internet Explorer 10 Support' section for more information.
• Version 1.10
  • Added 'Visited From' column (Only for Firefox and Chrome), which displays the URL that the user has visited prior to the Web page specified under the URL column.
• Version 1.06
  • Fixed BrowsingHistoryView to display the Web page title for Internet Explorer Web browser.
• Version 1.05
  • Added 'Copy URLs' option (Ctrl+U)
  • Added 'Open URL In Web Browser' option.
• Version 1.01
  • BrowsingHistoryView now reads the profiles.ini file of Firefox to get the correct profile folders.
• Version 1.00 - First release.

System Requirements

The following Web browsers are supported:

• Internet Explorer (Version 4.00 and greater)
• Mozilla Firefox (Version 3.00 and greater)
• Microsoft Edge
• Google Chrome
• Safari
• Opera (Version 15 or later, which is based on Chrome Web browser)
• Yandex Web browser
• Vivaldi Web browser
• SeaMonkey Web browser
• Brave Web browser

Known Limitations and Problems

• 'Visit Count' on Internet Explorer Web browser: The 'Visit Count' column is taken "as is" from the history file of Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer tend to extremely bloat the 'Visit Count' number, which means that you cannot assume that the 'Visit Count' number represents the actual number of times that the user visited the specified Web site. This remark is only relevant for Internet Explorer. Other Web browsers count the number of visits properly, as far as I know.
• Limitations and problems with reading the history of IE10, IE11 and Microsoft Edge: Version 10 and 11 of Internet Explorer stores the history data inside WebCacheV01.dat, and this file is locked by the operating system most of the time, even when IE is closed.
  In order to unlock the history database file, you should turn on the 'Automatically stop the cache task of IE10/IE11/Edge' option. If you use the 'Load history from remote computer' option - BrowsingHistoryView will stop the cache task of IE10/IE11/Edge on the specified remote system, so you'll be able to see the history of IE10/IE11/Edge remotely.

Start Using BrowsingHistoryView

After you run BrowsingHistoryView, the 'Advanced Options' window is displayed. By default, BrowsingHistoryView offers you to load the history of all Web browsers and all user profiles in the last 10 days, but you can change the options according to your needs.

After pressing 'Ok' in the 'Advanced Options' window, BrowsingHistoryView loads and displays the browsing history according to the options you chose.

The 'Advanced Options' Window

• Filter by visit date/time: Allows you to load the history from the last number of days/hours, or from specific date/time range.
• Web Browsers: BrowsingHistoryView will load the history only from the selected Web browsers. For example, if you want to only get the browsing history of Internet Explorer, then you need to select the 'Internet Explorer' check-box and deselect all others.
• Load history from: Allows you to choose the data source of the browsing history:
  • Load history from the current running system (All users): If you choose this option, BrowsingHistoryView scans all the user profiles on your system (C:\Documents and Settings or C:\Users) and loads the history data from them.
    Be aware that the Registry file of every user profile (NTUSER.DAT) should be readable, because BrowsingHistoryView uses the Registry file to locate the correct history file/folder of every Web browser. If BrowsingHistoryView cannot read NTUSER.DAT, it'll try to locate the correct folders in other less reliable ways.
  • Load history from the current running system (Only current user): If you choose this option, BrowsingHistoryView loads only the browsing history of the current logged-on user.
  • Load history from the specified profiles folder: If you choose this option, BrowsingHistoryView scans all the user profiles under the specified folder. The specified folder should be something like H:\Documents and Settings (On Windows XP) or H:\Users (On Windows 7/2008/Vista/8).
    Be aware that the Registry file of every user profile (NTUSER.DAT) should be readable, because BrowsingHistoryView uses the Registry file to locate the correct history file/folder of every Web browser. If BrowsingHistoryView cannot read NTUSER.DAT, it'll try to locate the correct folders in other less reliable ways.
  • Load history from the specified profile: If you choose this option, BrowsingHistoryView loads the history from the specified profile folder. The specified profile folder should be something like H:\Documents and Settings\Administrator (On Windows XP) or H:\Users\Administrator (On Windows 7/2008/Vista/8).
    
  • Load history from the specified custom folders: If you choose this option, you should specify the following folders of the user profile you want to load: History (e.g: C:\Users\user01\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History ), App Data (e.g: C:\Users\user01\AppData\Roaming), Local App Data (e.g: C:\Users\user01\AppData\Local)
  • Load history from the specified history files: If you choose this option, you have to specify the history file of every Web browser that you want to load.
  • Load history from remote computer: Allows you to load the browsing history from remote computer on your network. Be aware that this option works only when you have full admin access to the remote computer. If you want to view the history of IE10/IE11/Edge Web browser, you have to turn on the following option: 'Automatically stop the cache task of IE10/IE11/Edge for unlocking the database file.'

Reading Older History From Shadow Copies

Command-Line Options

Here's some command-line examples:
BrowsingHistoryView.exe /HistorySource 4 /HistorySourceFolder "H:\Documents and Settings\User01" /stab "c:\temp\history.txt"
BrowsingHistoryView.exe /HistorySource 3 /HistorySourceFolder "G:\Documents and Settings" /VisitTimeFilterType 3 /VisitTimeFilterValue 10 /scomma "c:\temp\history.csv"
BrowsingHistoryView.exe /HistorySource 1 /LoadIE 1 /LoadFirefox 0 /LoadChrome 0 /LoadSafari 0 /shtml "c:\temp\history.html"
BrowsingHistoryView.exe /HistorySource 2 /VisitTimeFilterType 4 /VisitTimeFrom "01-01-2011 00:00:00" /VisitTimeTo "01-01-2012 00:00:00" /stab "c:\temp\history.txt"

Be aware that you can use any variable stored in tne .cfg file as command-line parameter, even if it's not specified in the above command-line list.

Translating BrowsingHistoryView to other languages

1. Run BrowsingHistoryView with /savelangfile parameter:
   BrowsingHistoryView.exe /savelangfile
   A file named BrowsingHistoryView_lng.ini will be created in the folder of BrowsingHistoryView utility.
2. Open the created language file in Notepad or in any other text editor.
3. Translate all string entries to the desired language. Optionally, you can also add your name and/or a link to your Web site. (TranslatorName and TranslatorURL values) If you add this information, it'll be used in the 'About' window.
4. After you finish the translation, Run BrowsingHistoryView, and all translated strings will be loaded from the language file.
   If you want to run BrowsingHistoryView without the translation, simply rename the language file, or move it to another folder.

License

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BrowsingHistoryView is also available in other languages. In order to change the language of BrowsingHistoryView, download the appropriate language zip file, extract the 'browsinghistoryview_lng.ini', and put it in the same folder that you Installed BrowsingHistoryView utility.

Language	Translated By	Date	Version
Arabic	Shanaab!	10/07/2015	1.70
Brazilian Portuguese	Paulo Guzmán	03/11/2022	2.52
Bulgarian	Nider Karlov	25/11/2020	2.45
Croatian	Tihomir Šibalić	10/04/2020	2.40
Czech	Jakub Šindelář	06/11/2017	2.10
Dutch	Jan Verheijen	17/09/2024	2.58
Finnish	Arzer	21/03/2013	1.00
French	Alain NOGUES	12/09/2012	1.01
French	Largo	17/09/2024	2.58
German	«Latino» auf WinTotal.de	15/10/2024	2.59
Greek	geogeo.gr	21/01/2018	2.15
Hungarian	Timinoun	13/11/2024	2.59
Italian	Jaff (Oprea Nicolae)	30/12/2018	2.17
Italian	Giacomo Margarito e R.B.	11/10/2023	2.56
Japanese	coolvitto	15/10/2024	2.59
Persian	ZendegiyeSabz	20/10/2024	2.59
Polish	Melonet	01/02/2022	2.51
Romanian	Jaff (Oprea Nicolae)	30/12/2018	2.17
Russian	Dmitry Yerokhin	31/08/2023	2.56
Simplified Chinese	DickMoore	03/10/2024	2.58
Slovak	František Fico	28/10/2024	2.59
Spanish	Carlos Sánchez	13/12/2020	2.45
Traditional Chinese	Danfong Hsieh	31/08/2023	2.56
Traditional Chinese	Hulen (破滅刃)	05/05/2013	1.30
Turkish	HARUN ARI	12/11/2023	2.57