Q. How can I delete a specific entry in the Internet Explorer history of typed URLs in the address bar drop-down list?

In addition to the Internet Explorer history of Web pages that you visited, Internet Explorer specifically tracks the history of URLs that you typed into the address bar.

I have scripted DelTypedURL.bat to allow you to delete entries from the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs sub-key that matches a string you specify.

The syntax for using DelTypedURL.bat is:

\[call\] DelTypedURL SearchString

Where SearchString is matched against both the URL strings and the URLn Value Names. If either match, that Value Name is deleted and the remaining URLn Value Names are renamed so there is no gap in the sequence number.

DelTypedURL.bat contains:

@echo off
if \{%1\}==\{\} @echo syntax: DelTypedURL SearchString&goto :EOF
setlocal
regedit /a "%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.TM1" "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs"
If exist "%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS" goto doit
@echo.dim fso, readfile, contents, writefile, objArguments, w1, w2, w3, w4, w5, w6, w7, w8 >"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.dim FullFileName, NewFilename>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.Set objArguments = Wscript.Arguments>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.ps1 = 2 >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.ps2 = 7 >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.ps3 = 1 >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.ps4 = 6 >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.ps5 = 8 >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.ln = 3 >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.cnt=0 >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.FullFileName="%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.TM1">>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.NewFilename="%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.TM2">>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.set readfile = fso.OpenTextFile(FullFileName, 1, false)>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.set writefile = fso.CreateTextFile(NewFileName, 2)>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.Do until readfile.AtEndOfStream = True>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.     contents = readfile.ReadLine>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.     if MID(contents, ps3, ps3) = "\[" Then>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.         w3 = Len(contents) - 1 >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.         w4 = MID(contents, ps1, w3)>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.         writefile.writeLine "\[-" ^& w4>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.     end if>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.     w1 = Replace(contents, objArguments(0), "#")>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.     if w1 = contents Then>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.         w2 = MID(contents, ps1, ln) >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.         if w2 ^ "url" Then>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.             writefile.writeLine contents>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.         else>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.             w6 = MID(contents, ps3, ps2)>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.             w7 = len(contents) - 7 >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.             w8 = MID(contents, ps5, w7) >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.             if MID(w8, ps3, ps3) ^ "=" Then >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.                  w8 = "=" ^& w8 >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.             end if>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.             cnt = cnt + 1 >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.             contents = 
url" ^& cnt ^& 
" ^& w8 >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.             writefile.writeLine contents>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.         end if>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.     else>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.         Wscript.Echo "Deleted " ^& contents >>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.     end if>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.loop>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.readfile.close>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
@echo.writefile.close>>"%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS"
:doit
cscript //nologo "%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.VBS" %1
regedit /s "%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.TM2"
del /q "%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.TM1"
del /q "%TEMP%\DelTypedURL.TM2"
endlocal