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For those of you that have downloaded and using Firefox 3, you MAY have noticed that it keeps a "history" of your latest typed in or visited locations in the location bar drop down menu (arrow on right of bar).

This could be embarrassing to a lot of people if your computer is used by others. This is not cleared on exit as was previously done in Firefox 2.

Here is a work around that fixes this:
1. In the browser location bar type: “about:config� (without quotes)
2. A screen will appear that says: “This might void your warranty� click “Yes, I’ll be careful�.
3. Next you will see a screen with hundreds of lines of options. Type ‘urlbar’ in the space marked ‘Filter’.
4. Look for the line that reads: browser.’urlbar.MaxRichResults’
5. Double click on that line — a box will pop up — change the integer to “0″ (without quotes).
6. Close the box and click the browser BACK button to return to the main browser window.
7. In the Preferences, go to Privacy (PC = Options > Tools) and set “Keep my history for “0″ days�.
8. Quit Firefox and the next time you start, you SHOULD not have this annoying issue.

Another tip on Firefox 3. When you get up to leave your browser, press Ctrl-Shift-Delete and it'll popup a window asking you if you want to delete all personal information and history from your browsing session.

drw wrote:Another tip on Firefox 3. When you get up to leave your browser, press Ctrl-Shift-Delete and it'll popup a window asking you if you want to delete all personal information and history from your browsing session.

Doesn't work here...

You can set it to clear private data upon exit in Tools>Options>Private Data. Set the checkbox for clear private data upon exit. You can select what it clears by clicking on the settings button in the Private Data section.

dave_in_austin, That does not work for the Location Bar History in Firefox 3. It did in Firefox 2, but no more. Thus the reason why I posted the fix for FF3.

My reply was in response to drw's tip about ctl-shift-del as a way to accomplish the same automatically on exit. You are correct that it does not clear the location bar history though.

Sorry it doesn't work; it works for me. Google for "Ctrl-Shift-Delete Firefox" for more information; it really is a useful tip that works for a lot of folks.

drw wrote:Sorry it doesn't work; it works for me. Google for "Ctrl-Shift-Delete Firefox" for more information; it really is a useful tip that works for a lot of folks.

Sorry about that, it does work. It just was not asking me if it was ok.

The proper way to deal with this is by always logging out, and/or having a password protected screensaver. That way no one can see your "stuff".

Window key + L for the windows users, Alt + Ctl + L for the default KDE users. Every time you step away from the keyboard.

Hint for Mac users:

When you change the urlbar.maxRichResults to "0", you can't use the back button to return to the main list. You have to backspace/delete "urlbar" from the Filter box.

Then, when you open the Preferences dialog (Firefox>Preferences), select the Privacy tab. The first item listed is "Keep my history for at least XX days". The default is 90. Change that to 0.

BTW, the default skin on the new browser is nice.