Internet usage reports are a common request we system admins have to deal with. You can easily obtain reports on internet usage and see what websites your employees or kids are accessing with free software from Nirsoft.
System Requirement
==================
This utility works on any version of Windows operating system with
Internet Explorer version 4.00 or greater.
Using IEHistoryView
===================
IEHistoryView is provided as standalone executable, so it doesn’t require
any installation process or additional DLLs. Just copy the executable
(iehv.exe) to any folder you like, and run it.
After you run it, the main window displays the list of all URLs stored in
the history file of the current logged on user. If you want to view the
history information of other users on your computer, choose the “Select
User Profile” from the file menu, and select the desired user profile.
If you want to view the history information of another computer on a
network, connect to the desired network drive, and from the File menu,
choose “Select History Folder”, and select the history folder in the
remote drive.
Notice: The Hits Column
=======================
Many poeple ask me about the meaning of the Hits column in the History
file of Internet Explorer. So here’s a small explanation: Generally, the
Hits value should display the number of times that you visited the
specified URL. However, in many records, you may notice that when you
visit the URL, the number of hits grows by more than one. It might grow
by 2, 3, 5, or even 15.
I don’t know the exact “formula” that Microsoft uses to calculate the
hits value. This means that you cannot use the Hits column to detemine
the exact number of times that you visited a Web site.
Notice: Time Zone
=================
When you use this tool to inspect the IE history of another computer, The
time zone settings of Windows (including Daylight saving time) in the
computer the runs IEHistoryView must be the same as the time zone
settings of the computer that created the history file. That’s because
the Modified Time in some of the history records is saved in GMT, while
the Modified Time in other records is saved in local time, and
IEHistoryView has to correct the Modified Time according to the correct
time zone.
The Typed URLs List
===================
Most URLs that you visit are saved in the History folder. However,
Internet Explorer also saves the last 25 URLs that you typed in the
following Registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\TypedURLs
By default, IEHistoryView doesn’t display the URLs list from the
Registry, but you can change this setting by choosing the “Display Typed
URLs” option under the View menu. If this option is selected, the URLs
list in the Registry are displayed, in addition to the list of all URLs
stored in the History folder. You can distinguish between the 2 types of
URLs by looking at the ‘Hits’ column or at the one of the dates columns.
As opposed to the URLs extracted from the History folder, The URLs from
the Registry doesn’t provide any additional information except the URL
itself, so the other columns contains ‘N/A’ string (Not Available).
Be aware that the typed URLs list can only be displayed for your local
system. You cannot view the typed URLs list if choose to watch the
history data from another computer or from another operating system.
Deleting URLs From The History File
===================================
IEHistoryView allows you to delete URL items from the history file and
from the typed URLs list in the Registry. In order to that, select the
URLs that you want to delete, and press the Del key.
Viewing Older History Information
=================================
In some circumstances, Internet Explorer saves some older history
information in subfolders located under the main history folder. Starting
from version 1.20, you can view the history information stored in these
subfolders by using the ‘Select History Subfolder’ option in the File
menu.
About The History Folder
========================
The location of the history folder is different from one operating system
to another.
On Windows 98, the history folder is located under your Windows
directory. For example: If your Windows 98 is installed under c:\win98,
the history folder is c:\win98\history
On Windows 2000/XP, the History folder is located inside “Local Settings”
folder of your user profile. For Example: C:\Documents and
Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\History. The “Local Settings”
folder is hidden by default, so you won’t see this folder unless your
system is configured to display hidden files and folders.
In most systems, IEHistoryView automatically identify your current
History folder and uses it as default. However, you can always select
History folder from another location by using the “Select History Folder”
option under the File menu.
Be aware that when you watch the History folder from Windows environment,
it doesn’t show you the real files inside this folder, but instead it
displays the history shell extension that provides limited information
about the sites you visited.
Command-Line Options
====================
Syntax: iehv [/Action] [“Destination File”] {-Source Type} {“Source”}
[/Action] can be one of the following options:
/stext
Saves the URLs list into a text file specified in [“Destination File”]
parameter.
/stab
Saves the URLs list into tab-delimited text file specified in
[“Destination File”] parameter.
/shtml
Saves the URLs list into HTML file specified in [“Destination File”]
parameter.
/sverhtml
Saves the URLs list into vertical HTML file file specified in
[“Destination File”] parameter.
/stabular
Saves the URLs list into tabular text file specified in [“Destination
File”] parameter.
/sxml
Saves the URLs list into xml file specified in [“Destination File”]
parameter.
/sort 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 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 “URL” and “Modified Date”. You can specify the ‘~’ prefix character
(e.g: “~Modified Date”) 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:
iehv.exe /shtml “f:\temp\iehv.html” /sort 2 /sort ~1
iehv.exe /shtml “f:\temp\iehv.html” /sort “~Modified Date”
/nosort
When you specify this command-line option, the list will be saved without
any sorting.
The {-Source Type} parameter is optional. If you don’t specify it, the
URLs will be loaded from the default History folder on your system.
This parameter may contain one of the following values:
-folder
Loads the URLs list from the folder specified in {“Source”} parameter.
-user
Loads the URLs list of the user specified in {“Source”} parameter.
-allsubfolders [0 | 1]
Determines whether IEHistoryView should save the history items from all
subfolders. 1 = yes, 0 = no.
-allprofiles [0 | 1]
Determines whether IEHistoryView should save the history items from all
user profiles. 1 = yes, 0 = no.
-lastdays [days]
Loads only the history items from the last xx days.
Examples:
iehv -folder “c:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local
Settings\History”
iehv /shtml “c:\temp\urls.html”
iehv /stext “c:\temp\urls.txt” -user admin2
iehv /stext “c:\temp\urls1.txt” -folder “c:\windows\history”
iehv /shtml “c:\temp\urls.html” -allsubfolders 1
iehv /shtml “c:\temp\urls.html” -allsubfolders 1 /sort “URL”
iehv /shtml “c:\temp\urls.html” -allprofiles 1
iehv /shtml “c:\temp\urls.html” -lastdays 7
Translating to other languages
==============================
IEHistoryView allows you to easily translate all menus, dialog-boxes, and
other strings to other languages.
In order to do that, follow the instructions below:
1. Run IEHistoryView with /savelangfile parameter:
iehv.exe /savelangfile
A file named iehv_lng.ini will be created in the folder of
IEHistoryView utility.
2. Open the created language file in Notepad or in any other text
editor.
3. Translate all menus, dialog-boxes, and string entries to the
desired language.
4. After you finish the translation, Run IEHistoryView, and all
translated strings will be loaded from the language file.
If you want to run IEHistoryView without the translation, simply
rename the language file, or move it to another folder.
License
=======
This utility is released as freeware. You are allowed to freely
distribute this utility via floppy disk, CD-ROM, Internet, or in any
other way, as long as you don’t charge anything for this. If you
distribute this utility, you must include all files in the distribution
package, without any modification !
Disclaimer
==========
The software is provided “AS IS” without any warranty, either expressed
or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of
merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The author will not
be liable for any special, incidental, consequential or indirect damages
due to loss of data or any other reason.