(You can often erase individual history item from the
history pane by right-clicking them and choosing delete.)
If that fails, search this forum for posts related
to "history" problems. Some explain how to delete a
particular index.dat file that is hidden in your History
folder. You can do this only in DOS (bootup) but it is a
harmless procedure since the file will recreate itself
from scratch as soon as Windows reloads. The new one will
finally be empty of all previously listed sites.
I myself was unable to erase ANY History in IE for a long
time and none of the usual suggestions helped, including
accessing Internet Options through Control Panel, purging
all spyware, and crippling any protective programs that
were running. Deleting the history folder's index.dat DID
erase the list but would still not restore the normal
ability to erase within IE, which meant the DOS method
would be needed every time.
However, I then discovered that the separate "Internet
Options" screen available within my AOL browser did
indeed let me clear the History cache. Apparently the
software from AOL (and maybe other ISP software as well)
can keep a "handle" on the History folder preventing other
processes from deleting its contents. This appears to be
true regardless of which browser (IE or AOL's) originally
went to the sites in the cache.
If the above applies to you, the path for deleting the
history cache and other web matters from within AOL (6.0
for example) is as follows:
Settings > Preferences > Internet Properties
From there, the screens should look somewhat familiar and
the procedure will be obvious.