Description
BrowsingHistoryView is a utility that reads the history data of 4 different Web browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari) and displays the browsing history of all these Web browsers in one table. The browsing history table includes the following information: Visited URL, Title, Visit Time, Visit Count, Web browser and User Profile. BrowsingHistoryView allows you to watch the browsing history of all user profiles in a running system, as well as to get the browsing history from external hard drive.You can also export the browsing history into csv/tab-delimited/html/xml file from the user interface, or from command-line, without displaying any user interface.
System Requirements
This utility works on any version of Windows, starting from Windows 2000, and up to Windows 8. Both 32-bit and x64 systems are supported. The following Web browsers are supported:- Internet Explorer (Version 4.00 and greater)
- Mozilla Firefox (Version 3.00 and greater)
- Google Chrome
- Safari
Start Using BrowsingHistoryView
BrowsingHistoryView doesn't require any installation process or additional dll files. In order to start using it, simply run the executable file - BrowsingHistoryView.exe 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 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.
Reading History From Remote Computer
If you have read access to the user profiles in another computer on your network, you can use BrowsingHistoryView to directly view the browsing history of the remote computer. However, due to the fact that the Registry file on the remote computer is probably locked, in some systems BrowsingHistoryView might fail to locate the correct history files or folders. In order to view the browsing history of all user profiles in a remote computer, use the 'Load history from the specified profiles folder' option, and then type the profiles folder on the remote computer, for example: \\192.168.0.10\c$\usersIn order to view the browsing history of a single user profile in a remote computer, use the 'Load history from the specified profile' option, and then type the profile folder on the remote computer, for example: \\192.168.0.10\c$\users\user01
Internet Explorer 10 Support
Starting from version 1.15 of BrowsingHistoryView, Internet Explorer 10 is also supported. Internet Explorer 10 has completely new file structure to store the history information. Instead of storing the history inside the index.dat filename, the browsing history is now stored inside a Jet Blue database, WebCacheV24.dat or WebCacheV01.dat, located under AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WebCache.There is a major problem with this database file - while using Internet Explorer 10, it's completely locked and other software cannot read it. Only a few minutes after you stop using IE10, this file is released and BrowsingHistoryView has the ability to read it.
So in order to view the history of IE10, you have to stop using Internet Explorer 10 and then wait a few minutes, or alternatively reboot your system to release this file.
BrowsingHistoryView also provides an option to read the file even when it's locked, by using the 'Volume Shadow Copy' service. This method is quite aggressive and may cause BrowsingHistoryView to hang for a few seconds. In order to activate the 'Volume Shadow Copy' feature, you have to run BrowsingHistoryView with /UseVolumeShadowCopy command-line option:
BrowsingHistoryView.exe /UseVolumeShadowCopy There are also other requirements to make the 'Volume Shadow Copy' method working properly:
- You must run BrowsingHistoryView.exe as administrator (Right-click on BrowsingHistoryView.exe, choose 'Properties' and then choose to run it as administrator)
- You must use the correct build of BrowsingHistoryView according to your operating system - 32-bit or 64-bit
- You must use NTFS file system.
Command-Line Options
| /stext <Filename> | Save the browsing history into a regular text file. |
| /stab <Filename> | Save the browsing history into a tab-delimited text file. |
| /scomma <Filename> | Save the browsing history into a comma-delimited text file (csv). |
| /stabular <Filename> | Save the browsing history into a tabular text file. |
| /shtml <Filename> | Save the browsing history into HTML file (Horizontal). |
| /sverhtml <Filename> | Save the browsing history into HTML file (Vertical). |
| /sxml <Filename> | Save the browsing history into XML file. |
| /sort <column> |
This command-line option can be used with other save options for sorting by the desired column.
If you don't specify this option, the list is sorted according to the last sort that you made from the user interface.
The <column> parameter can specify the column index (0 for the first column, 1 for the second column, and so on) or
the name of the column, like "Title" and "URL".
You can specify the '~' prefix character (e.g: "~Visit Time") if you want to sort in descending order.
You can put multiple /sort in the command-line if you want to sort by multiple columns.
Examples:
BrowsingHistoryView.exe /shtml "f:\temp\history.html" /sort 2 /sort ~1 BrowsingHistoryView.exe /shtml "f:\temp\history.html" /sort "URL" /sort "Visit Time" |
| /nosort | When you specify this command-line option, the list will be saved without any sorting. |
| /SaveDirect | Save the browsing history in SaveDirect mode. For using with the other save command-line options ( /scomma, /stab, /sxml, and so on...) When you use the SaveDirect mode, the history lines are saved directly to the disk, without loading them into the memory first. This means that you can save a list with large amount of history lines into your disk without any memory problem, as long as you have enough disk space to store the saved file. The drawback of this mode: You cannot sort the lines according to the column you choose with /sort command-line option. |
| /HistorySource <Source> |
Specifies the type of history data source:
|
| /HistorySourceFolder <Folder> | Specifies the folder path if /HistorySource is 3 or 4. |
| /VisitTimeFilterType <Filter Type> |
Specifies the type of date/time filter:
|
| /VisitTimeFilterValue <Filter Value> | Specifies the filter value when /VisitTimeFilterType is 2 or 3 |
|
/VisitTimeFrom <Time> /VisitTimeTo <Time> |
Specifies the date/time range when /VisitTimeFilterType is 4.
date/time value must be in the following format: dd-mm-yyyy hh:nn:ss
For example:
BrowsingHistoryView.exe /VisitTimeFrom "10-01-2012 12:00:00" /VisitTimeTo "18-02-2012 10:00:00" |
|
/LoadIE <0 | 1> /LoadFirefox <0 | 1> /LoadChrome <0 | 1> /LoadSafari <0 | 1> | Specifies whether to load the history of IE/Firefox/Chrome/Safari Web browser. 0 = Don't load, 1 = Load. |
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"
Translating BrowsingHistoryView to other languages
In order to translate BrowsingHistoryView to other language, follow the instructions below:- Run BrowsingHistoryView with /savelangfile parameter:
BrowsingHistoryView.exe /savelangfile
A file named BrowsingHistoryView_lng.ini will be created in the folder of BrowsingHistoryView utility. - Open the created language file in Notepad or in any other text editor.
- 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.
- 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.
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