The new versions of both IE (Ver.8) and Firefox (Ver. 3.5) comes with a really nice feature called Private browsing built in without any need of any special addon or configuration.

Privatebrowsing

But first let we talk about what really is meant by the term private browsing. As per Mozilla :

“Private Browsing,” allows you to browse the Internet without Firefox retaining any of data about which sites and pages you have visited.

HOW TO BROWSE PRIVATELY IN FIREFOX

To start a Private Browsing session:

1.Go to Tools menu in Firefox and click Start Private Browsing.

private browsing firefox2.  After this, Firefox will warn you that it will save your current windows and tabs for after you finish using Private Browsing. Click on Start Private Browsing to continue.

private browsing firefox1

3. After you click start private browsing, a new window will open which will tell you what firefox private browsing will do and it wont any information in your private browsing session.

It also warns that even though firefox wont store any information during the session, still the Internet service provider or the employer (if you are on your office system) may track or store information related to your browsing session.

private browsing firefox2 Firefox window’s title will change to (Private Browsing) during your  entire session.

private browsing firefox3

To end a Private Browsing session: go to Tools menu >>Stop Private Browsing entry.

HOW TO BROWSE PRIVATELY IN Internet Explorer (IE8)

1. Go to Safety options in IE8 Menu and click “InPrivate Browsing” .

Private browsing IE82. A new IE window will open which will tell you about private browsing.

Private browsing IE8 -1

3. That’s it. You can now browse privately. The private indicator in your browser will remain till you dont exit the session.

Private browsing IE8 -2To Close the private browsing session, just close the browser window.