Windows keeps track of certain activities on the computer, including your Search and Browsing history. You can find below the steps to View and Clear Activity History in Windows 10.
Clear Activity History in Windows 10
When you are logged in the computer using Microsoft Account, Windows sends your activity History to Microsoft in order to provide you with a personalized user experience.
Your Activity History as collected by Microsoft includes Apps that you use, files that you open and the websites that you browse on the computer.
If you have multiple User Accounts, Activity history is collected for each Local Account on the computer and only the Activity history linked to the Primary User Account is sent to Microsoft.
In order to help you manage your privacy, Microsoft provides the option to View, Clear and also prevent Activity History from being collected.
1. Clear Activity History in Local User Accounts
If you use one or more Local Accounts to Login to the computer, you can clear Activity History by following the steps below in each of the User Accounts.
Go to Settings > Privacy > click on Activity History in the left-pane. In the right-pane, scroll down to Clear Activity History section and click on the Clear button.
On the confirmation pop-up, click on OK to confirm
2. View and Clear Activity History in Microsoft Account
If you also use Microsoft Account to Login to the computer, you can View and Clear Activity Your History by going to Privacy Dashboard in your Microsoft Account.
Go to Settings > Privacy > click on Activity History in the left-pane. In the right-pane, scroll down and click on Privacy Dashboard Link. This will take you to Microsoft’s Privacy website
If prompted, login to your Microsoft Account, click on Privacy > Activity History.
On the Activity History Page, you will see your Activity History arranged by Data Types (Apps, Voice, Search, Browse, Media and Location).
As you can see from above image, there is no option to clear All Activity History at once. You will have to open and clear Activity History for each Data type.
3. Prevent Computer from Sending Your Activity History to Microsoft
As mentioned, it is also possible to prevent your computer from sending activity history to Microsoft.
Go to Settings > Privacy > Activity history > Uncheck Store my activity history on this device and Send my activity history to Microsoft option.
Next, go to Settings > Privacy > Feedback & Diagnostics > and select the Basic option.
Note: It is also possible to clear Activity history while you are not logged in to the computer using Microsoft Account. You can do this by going to Privacy Settings in your Email Account linked to Microsoft Account.
