Preventing Chrome from keeping my history

Question

I would like Chrome to stop keeping my browsing history. I am familiar with incognito mode but would like to retain everything from my browsing except my history (e.g., Incognito mode deletes cookies which I want to retain.) Is there a way to accomplish this?

Answer 1

I don't think there's a way from Chrome itself (even with an extension: I don't think extensions can run a hook when the browser exits). But it's easy to do from the outside: instead of launching Chrome, launch a script that runs Chrome, then deletes the history.

For best privacy, put the history on a RAM filesystem (make the History file in your profile a symbolic link pointing into the RAM filesystem).

Answer 2

if you just want to keep Chrome from logging your history, without using incognito mode, go to C:\Users\<User Name>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default, and change all of the history files to read only. just right click on them, choose properties, click the "read only" radio, and hit ok. there should only be a few - "history", 1-3 files labelled "history index .....", "history provider cache", and "history-journal". set them all to read only and it won't record your history as you browse. still haven't figured out how to stop it from recording omnibox text

Answer 3

As of now you'll have to use Clear Browsing Data ( Chrome Menu → Tools → Clear browsing data )

Answer 4

If you're on Windows, I have this script below that may help.

Usage: save the script below in a "del_chrome_hist.bat" file, ensure Chrome is totally closed (no chrome.exe in your TaskMan) and then run it with admin privileges :

---

ECHO deleting chrome history
set ChromeDataDir=C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
del /q /f "%ChromeDataDir%\*History*.*">nul 2>&1    

set ChromeDataDir=C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
del /q /f "%ChromeDataDir%\*History*.*">nul 2>&1
ECHO deleting chrome history DONE

Furthermore, you can create a task schedule to run this script on Windows start-up.