It's not only those who surf adult websites or chat rooms that might wish to hide their tracks from others. Many people keep sensitive information on shared computers and have an interest in keeping data private. It is absolutely vital to make this your habit to avoid potential problems. While bought software can erase history logs, this how-to will equip you to do it yourself for free.
Steps
- Delete internet history, cookies, temp files and saved form data. For Internet Explorer users:
- Bring up Internet Options from the Tools menu, then select "Delete all.". Alternatively, delete individual items using the History Pane accessible from the toolbar button.
- Delete cookies - In the same "Internet Options" window, select Delete Cookies. Alternatively, delete individual items accessible using the View Files button.
- Delete temp files - In the same "Internet Options" window, select Delete Files. See Tips for how to manage temporary files.
- Delete saved form and password data by clicking on AutoComplete on the Content tab in Internet Options. Cover your tracks by clicking on the Clear Forms and Clear Passwords buttons.
For Firefox Users:- Use the ctrl-shift-delete key combination by holding them all down at the same time. Check the list for what you want to delete (cookies, passwords, form and password data, temp files). Alternatively, delete individual items by going to the Tools menu and click Options, then Privacy and finally Cookies. Click View Cookies to choose which ones to keep and delete.
- Delete history information stored in the registry. Go to Opened & Saved documents, click on Search history and then Run history.
- Clear Recent Items list. Open the Start menu and click on the Recent Options item. Click on Clear recent items in the context menu.
- Install Spybot. Spybot Search & Destroy (see External Links) is a free tool which can remove registry stored histories.
- Run Spybot and click Check for Problems. Wait for the report. When it appears, right-click a found entry and click Select All. #*Alternatively, in the report, select individual usage tracks for deletion. You may want to keep some of them though.
- Find the high-up button called Fix All Problems. Your registry tracks will now be deleted.
- Recognize that at this point all your PC's standard histories are now erased. Only true privacy enthusiasts will want to complete the following additional steps to delete the hidden history files. XP's hidden history files (index.dat files) are encoded in hexadecimal, not as text, so only the hackers amongst us will ever read them. Should you wish to erase these tracks, continue, perhaps most users would not need to.The screenshot shows that a determined audit of a computer can show a list of visited web sites using free software (Super WinSpy, see How to Recover Deleted History in Windows, can view many types of hidden history).
- Bring up an Explorer window listing all your computer's "index.dat" files. To do this in Windows Explorer, right-click C:\ drive and click Search, then For Files & Folders. Click All Files & Folders, and enter "index.dat" in the File name field.
- Before searching, check the following options using the More Advanced Options line:
- Search System Files
- Search Hidden Files & Folders
- Search Subfolders
- When searching completes, you will have a list of the hidden index.dat files on your computer.
- Overwrite the History contained in your target index.dat file. This is done by using a hex file editor such as PS Pad.
- Install PS Pad.
- Right-click an index.dat from your previous search results and choose "PSPad Hex" in the content menu. It will open for editing in hex mode. The screenshot shows an example file listing a history of opened Office files.
- Ensure you are not editing in Read-Only mode by trying to type a zero in the first field. Read-Only mode can be toggled on and off in the file menu of PS Pad.
- Overwrite each position in the file with zeroes (0) by navigating to the first entry and then just holding down the zero key. If you wish to overwrite specific lines in the file, navigate to a line using the scroll bar. The screenshot shows the same file overwritten with zeroes.
- Save the file. Do the same process to any other "index.dat" file you wish to erase
- Find and Install the software known as "CCleaner". Not only will it clean the history and cache of all these browsers, it will also clear out lots of other programs too, so no tracks can ever be left behind from other programs too.
Tips
- If you don't want to complicate your life with manual tracks erasing, find a program to do it for you such as CCleaner (which is free!), OSPC Privacy Cleaner, East-Tec Eraser 2007, Evidence Eliminator, Tracks Eraser Pro, or Window Washer (see External Links).
- Set IE to automatically delete temporary files when it closes. The option can be found in the Advanced tab under IE's Tools/Internet Options menu item. Alternatively, install IE replacement Firefox, which offers a "Clear Private Data" tool (see External Links).
- After erasing your tracks, delete all System Restore points for good measure. The registry can be restored to a previous state using this tool.
- To prevent forensic analysis of your hard drive, write over the empty space of your hard drive using a tool such as Eraser (see External Links).
- To disable the Recent Documents section on your start menu, right click on the Start button. Click on Properties. Go to the Start menu tab. Then Click the Customize button. Go to the Advanced tab. At the bottom, you'll see a recent documents section where you can uncheck "List my most recently opened documents." There is also a button that you can use to Clear the List and still keep that portion in the start menu.
- Windows maintains a DNS cache to help it find web pages. To see a list of recent web pages viewed, open a CMD window (click CMD in the 'run' box) and type ipconfig /displaydns. The cache can be emptied by typing ipconfig /flushdns.
Warnings
- Don't change computer settings for other users without asking. It would be a nuisance. Changing computer content without legal right is a crime in many countries.
- In some limited circumstances, it may be possible for an expert to reverse these changes.
- Attempting to hide your computer usage at work is likely to bring you into conflict with management policy. Network administrators can access server logs that detail network and workstation activity, and firewalls can also keep logs. ISPs also keep their own logs.
- System file changes you undertake yourself are potentially dangerous and under your own risk.
- You are likely to draw suspicion if it was clear that you took steps to erase your tracks.
Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Delete your Usage History Tracks in Windows. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.
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