BleepingComputer.com: Deleting IE History/Cookies without Admin Privs?

I have a user who was told by our vendor to clear all the temporary internet files, history, etc on their browser. Not being an admin, they don't have access to delete their history like that. If I log in as admin, and delete the history, it'll delete MY history, and not my user's.

My impression was even if that if, logged in as my user, I ran IE as administrator (through the right-click menu), it's still reading MY history and cookies, since it's running as my admin logon? Or would that cure her problem?

It's one user, for a one-time event. I shouldn't have to much around with active directory and group policy for this one person to clean them, and then go through and put it all bad, right?

The cookies, history and cache are all stored under THAT user's login (profile). If you run the IE executable as another account, everything will be pulled from the local profile of THAT account.

You do NOT need local admin rights to clear your history, cookies or cache. Any user can do it unless the option has been removed through Group Policy.

The option HAS been removed through group policy. That's the problem.

I have one person under this policy, who needs to clear out this data one time. I'd like to do it without actually tinkering with the group policy that has blocked it out.

Is there a script you can run, maybe?

If you have local admin rights, you can browse to the computer through UNC path and delete the cookies, cache and history remotely.

\\computername\C$

If the computer is Windows XP you can go to:

\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\History

If it is Windows Vista/7 it will be under:

\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History

This post has been edited by JonM33: 18 August 2010 - 02:42 PM

I went to \\ipaddress\c$\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings

and then manually deleted everything in the \History\ and \Temporary Internet Files\ folders. That might not have cleared the cookies? The problem is still happening.

All the cookies are located under Temporary Internet Files. If you deleted everything under there, then they are gone.

What is the problem that caused the vendor to suggest clearing history, cache and cookies?

There are supposed to be 4 buttons appearing on the front page of their site. The user only sees 3, and actually needs to use the 4th.

Doesn't sound like a history or cookies problem. Does the website use Java (JRE) or Javascript?

This post has been edited by JonM33: 18 August 2010 - 04:54 PM

It seems so. The page ends in .jsp instead of one of the usual extensions. For me, the button is slow to appear - the last thing on the page to load.

What version of IE is this user using? Can you upgrade her to see if it resolves the issue?

Another possible option is to rename her profile (to Username_Old) and have her log back in - which will create a new profile. See if the page renders properly then.