One of the most debated and most requested topics in IT forums and blogs is surely that of privacy, which is very difficult to obtain on the internet, but which needs to be protected to the maximum, without giving up the main services. From the moment you turn on the computer, all your computer activity is tracked and when you browse the web, this activity can also be viewed from the outside. Not only does the PC itself continuously store data that allow us to trace precisely everything that has been done in the past, but with the online tracking tools also the websites and applications used are able to monitor our internet activities with a more or less declared data collection.
While we had seen in another article how to prevent the collection of personal data online with some anti-tracking tools, in this case we focus on the privacy of the PC of the data stored on the disk, to erase the traces of use from a computer, in order to hide, to those who use it after us, everything that has been done, what programs have been opened, what files have been modified and created.
READ ALSO: Clear traces of web browsing from all browsers
To eliminate personal traces from a computer it is necessary to install an external program because Windows does not have an integrated tools to clean up traces of use of the computer.
What you can do from Windows is the operation to delete temporary files, which serves above all to free up space from obsolete files.
In Windows 10 it is also possible to disable the activity history, a recent function that allows you to resume past jobs and find what has also been seen on the web.
Regarding internet browsing, we have seen several articles in which it is explained, how to clear the internet browsing history and also how to prevent browsers from memorizing the sites visited.
To do an overall job to maintain full privacy on how the PC is used, however, it is better to download one of these programs that are designed specifically to eliminate any trace of computer use .
1) The most popular and famous program of this type is certainly Ccleaner which has the function of eliminating traces of use of the programs.
The cleaning function is the one to be used to clean up Windows and traces of use of the main programs.
This tool is also one of the best because Ccleaner cleaning rules can be expanded.
2) Privazer is the program to clean up Windows and remove traces, described in detail in another article.
It is a program specially designed to eliminate website cookies, clear the history of recent and temporary files, remove the image preview cache and much more, going all the way.
3) Glary Utilities is a computer optimization program that has a very complete section dedicated to privacy, excellent for deleting all files created while using programs on a PC.
4) Clean Master for Windows is another excellent program already described in the past, which you can download for free, to be used to eliminate traces of PC use and all temporary files created during normal activity.
5) Comodo System Cleaner is a program similar to Glary utilitis, with many tools to optimize the PC, which also has a section called Privacy Cleaner, with three cleaning levels, one soft, one normal and one aggressive that resets practically every changed setting on the system and delete the history of used programs and the internet.
6) System Ninja is the program to be used for those who are not satisfied with a basic cleaning and really want to delete any temporary or history files, removing any trace of use.
7) Privacy Eraser is available in a free version with a beautiful user-friendly interface with which you can make a complete system scan. The program scans the usage tracks of many important programs and folders. As for web browsers, there is the removal of the cache, passwords, history information, cookies, typed URLs and preferences of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera.
The program supports 50 programs including Adobe Reader, 7-zip, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Foxit Reader, Evernote, Windows Media Player and if you use Windows 8 also the Store apps. There is also the possibility of adding registry locations to check.
Privacy Eraser comes with a set of additional tools including:
- File Shredder to delete files and folders permanently;
- Clear free drive space;
- Startup Manager to disable startup programs.
8) Free Privacy Editor is a program for Windows 10 and Windows 7 and 8.
It deletes and removes the data left after using the PC by deleting those references to the documents and files used and to the sites visited on the internet.
This does not mean that the files created or modified are deleted but only that the evidence of what has been done is destroyed, removing the traces, for example, from the folder of recent documents.
With Free Privacy Eraser you can therefore delete, with a click, all temporary files, entered internet addresses, cookies, history and any passwords used and autocompletion data stored on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Opera browsers. On Windows you can delete traces of recent documents, logs, temporary files, data from copy and paste and what is inside the trash. You can then delete the temporary data of all the programs used on the computer such as, for example, Emule, 7Zip or WinZip or Winrar, Windows Media Player or Real Player, Google Earth, Safari, Quicktime and several others.
If there is no program whose tracks you want to delete, you can add it by clicking on "Custom List" where you can configure various programs whose usage data you want to remove. In this case, however, you must indicate the folder of temporary files generated by that program and the path on the system registry where any passwords or login data are saved. After choosing what to delete, you can press the "Test" button to check exactly what is being removed and how much data would be deleted.
9) MRU Blaster is the program for cleaning MRU lists (recently used), simple and dedicated to automatically generated lists that show recently used files.
10) Privacy Cleaner is a complete program that allows you to erase all traces and usage history of your computer and internet browsing.
It eliminates temporary files and recent Windows files, browser cache and history (Opera, Internet Explorer, Firefox), documents opened with Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), Java and Flash references and music history and video Windows Media Player.
READ ALSO: Protect privacy on the internet and see what the web knows about us
