WHAT YOU CAN DO
• Wipe details of recently opened files and programs
• Overwrite deleted data to make it impossible for others to recover
• Remove leftover traces from the Windows registry
• Delete unwanted tracking cookies while retaining essential ones
• Erase your browsing history from all your browsers
• Delete stored passwords and info you type into online forms
• Shred files and folders containing sensitive data
Anyone who wants to know what you’ve been doing on your computer – both online and offline – can find out in just a matter of seconds. Your PC stores details of all your Windows and web activities, including the files you open, the sites you visit and the software you use, and makes this information easy for you to access. But this also makes it easy for others to access, which significantly compromises your privacy, even if you have nothing to hide.
Manually deleting personal data from all the programs you use can be time-consuming and confusing, and traces of your activities are inevitably left behind, allowing savvy snoopers to see what you’ve been up to. To completely erase all these elements so they can’t be recovered, you need a dedicated privacy cleaner. Thankfully there are two excellent free tools available.
Privacy Eraser (www.cybertronsoft. com/products/privacy-eraser) and PrivaZer (privazer.com) will both purge your PC of all private data and leftover traces, including temporary files, tracking cookies and usage logs.
In this feature, we reveal the options you must use in both programs to perform the most thorough clean-up possible and hide all details of your activities from prying eyes. We explain which boxes you must tick, where to find them and how to ensure you don’t erase more – or less – data than you intend.
ERASE WHAT YOU DO IN WINDOWS
Recently opened files and programs
The logical place to start when removing details of your Windows activities is the Start menu, which shows anyone who uses your PC the programs you’ve recently added and those you use most often. Windows 11’s Start menu also lists Recommended items including recently opened files.
Further information about what you’ve been doing is revealed by the Jump Lists that open when you right-click the taskbar or Start-menu icons for programs and File Explorer. These list files, folders and links you opened recently or use frequently, so you can access them again quickly, but they also compromise your privacy by letting other people access those items, too.
In Privacy Eraser, you can wipe this data in the Windows Explorer section of the Windows tab (see screenshot above right). Select the options Start Menu Recent Items and Taskbar Jump Lists before you run a clean-up with the program.
