browser history is just that, what you have accessed using your browser and nothing else, so when you clear browser history that is all you are clearing, to get it to clear history on close you do have to x out and close your Internet Explorer which has no connection to still being connected via your router connection, when you x out and close your browser that resets the browser and clears your history and what ever else you have it set to clean upon closing. any other programs you may be concerned with having a history would be totally independent of the browser and would have to be handled through that program. When you power down your pc and cut power then you are fully disconnected from the internet and no programs can have access. so there is a difference in powering down the pc and turning off your browser in your case IE, you can clear IE history and cache from either the tools menu on the top of IE or in control panel under internet options. Using a program like ATF will do a much better job of clearing all the history and cache and stuff you want cleared. ATF-Cleaner directions are on the page

Compatibility Compatibility issues with websites Website compatibility Windows Internet Explorer 8 improves browser interoperability and advances the Web by delivering a better implementation of web standards. Although this is a move in the right direction, you might encounter compatibility issues with some sites that still rely on the behavior of earlier versions of Internet Explorer. Common symptoms of site compatibility problems are out-of-place menus, images, or text. Would this be the problem I was having? I keep getting the error message Sorry but IE has encountered a problem and needs to shut down,sorry,bla,bla. and had to shut down IE and start over. It did not shut down whole computer and have to re boot but just IE. I uninstalled IE8 and went back to IE7 and all is well.Thanks

with the page you want as your homepage open on your IE(have it the ONLY page open) go to the Options>general tab as mentioned above, in the options it should say select current page, since you will be on the page you want, use that option and then check back in that blank to see if it changes it to that page. You can also try to rid yourself of BING and its mess, look in the control panel add remove programs. To hide it: Right click an empty area on the toolbar area and uncheck lock the toolbars, then right click again and uncheck the bing toolbar, relock the toolbars. on this post over on the seven forums Thrax shows a method which seems to work on all versions of windows Hide or Remove IE8 Search Box

I would immediately be removing all those darn toolbars most can be done through add remove programs. I hate it when there are so many you can barely have enough real estate for viewing a webpage. But you sure can go back to IE7 just make sure you continue to get all your critical windows updates for IE7. also if you do choose to keep it you can change the address bar back to how it was in earlier versions of IE I have posted that tip here on a few threads but if you can not find it just either ask or google make IE8 look like Ie7 or IE6 there are a lot of things you can change to make it look more familiar, changing the look to the classic menu will be one easy change.