Hi there,

Where and what to remove if I want personal info - logon details (username
and password) to various website to be removed from Window XP pro and home
edition.

Also I have emptied the internet temp files but doesn't seem to do the
trick. Also where can I find all the download from internet to be removed.

Many thanks

Smiley wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> Where and what to remove if I want personal info - logon details (username
> and password) to various website to be removed from Window XP pro and home
> edition.
>
> Also I have emptied the internet temp files but doesn't seem to do the
> trick. Also where can I find all the download from internet to be removed.

How you do this really depends on your end goal. If you are going to
throw the hard drive away or sell the computer, the only way to make
sure there is no personal information on the hard drive is to zero the
drive out using at least the standard Dept. of Defense algorithm. You
can do this with the free Darik's Boot and Nuke. Or you can physically
destroy the drive with something nice like a sledgehammer.

If your end goal is different, please post back with exactly what you
want to do.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Hi there,

I don't want to physically destroy or nuke the drive (have done that many
times) but just to removed personally info so that anyone else would still
carry on using the same computer but without traces of last person's
'present'

Kind regards,


"Malke" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:eGla%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Smiley wrote:
>> Hi there,
>>
>> Where and what to remove if I want personal info - logon details
>> (username and password) to various website to be removed from Window XP
>> pro and home edition.
>>
>> Also I have emptied the internet temp files but doesn't seem to do the
>> trick. Also where can I find all the download from internet to be
>> removed.
>
> How you do this really depends on your end goal. If you are going to throw
> the hard drive away or sell the computer, the only way to make sure there
> is no personal information on the hard drive is to zero the drive out
> using at least the standard Dept. of Defense algorithm. You can do this
> with the free Darik's Boot and Nuke. Or you can physically destroy the
> drive with something nice like a sledgehammer.
>
> If your end goal is different, please post back with exactly what you want
> to do.
>
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

"Smiley" wrote in message
news:fm06g4$bj9$1$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> I don't want to physically destroy or nuke the drive (have done that
> many times) but just to removed personally info so that anyone else
> would still carry on using the same computer but without traces of
> last person's 'present'


There are tons of cleanup utilities found by Googling. The problem is
that a lot are crap or they don't look everywhere, especially because
everywhere depends on which programs you use and no cleaner handles
them all. Even CCleaner (CrapCleaner) will do some of the cleaning
that you want but is not 100%.

You might want to look into using VMWare Server (free) but you will
need another license for Windows to have a legitimate copy running in
a virtual machine. You do a fresh install of the OS, updates, and
anything else you want in the "base state" for the virtual machine and
then save a snapshot (and lock it to prevent accidentally overwriting
it since the free version only lets you save 1 snapshot). Then
pollute however you want. When you are done, revert to the snapshot
and everything is exactly back to that base state. You could use
Virtual PC (free) but it doesn't have the snapshot feature of VMWare
Server; however, you could emulate the snapshot feature by getting to
a base state and then saving the folder where are the VM files to a
backup location and then replace them when you want to wipe the VM
back to that base state.

If you don't want to buy another license of Windows (so you are legit)
then you might want to look into save-state products, like Microsoft's
SteadyState (free) or ShadowSurfer (no longer free, or its big brother
ShadowUser that was never free). Basically they record the
incremental changes to your hard drive while they are active and will
remove them when you reboot so the hard drive is [logically] back to
the prior state.

Of course, you could save an image of your partitions or disks and
then restore them to wipe out all changes made after the image got
created but that is a lot of time to restore from the image to get
back to the base state.

Smiley wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I don't want to physically destroy or nuke the drive (have done that many
> times) but just to removed personally info so that anyone else would still
> carry on using the same computer but without traces of last person's
> 'present'

1, Format the drive and clean-install Windows.
2, Or, if you trust that data recovery software isn't going to be used,
create a new user account and delete the old one. You will be given the
option to save the files - don't.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Hi there,

thank you for the info. I don't want to spend any money and do not have the
freedom of time or resource. I will be leaving my position/work and DO NOT
want any thing left behind as there is no 'turning point'. I could do delete
whenever I would find a minute or two.


"VanguardLH" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Smiley" wrote in message news:fm06g4$bj9$1$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> I don't want to physically destroy or nuke the drive (have done that many
>> times) but just to removed personally info so that anyone else would
>> still carry on using the same computer but without traces of last
>> person's 'present'
>
>
> There are tons of cleanup utilities found by Googling. The problem is
> that a lot are crap or they don't look everywhere, especially because
> everywhere depends on which programs you use and no cleaner handles them
> all. Even CCleaner (CrapCleaner) will do some of the cleaning that you
> want but is not 100%.
>
> You might want to look into using VMWare Server (free) but you will need
> another license for Windows to have a legitimate copy running in a virtual
> machine. You do a fresh install of the OS, updates, and anything else you
> want in the "base state" for the virtual machine and then save a snapshot
> (and lock it to prevent accidentally overwriting it since the free version
> only lets you save 1 snapshot). Then pollute however you want. When you
> are done, revert to the snapshot and everything is exactly back to that
> base state. You could use Virtual PC (free) but it doesn't have the
> snapshot feature of VMWare Server; however, you could emulate the snapshot
> feature by getting to a base state and then saving the folder where are
> the VM files to a backup location and then replace them when you want to
> wipe the VM back to that base state.
>
> If you don't want to buy another license of Windows (so you are legit)
> then you might want to look into save-state products, like Microsoft's
> SteadyState (free) or ShadowSurfer (no longer free, or its big brother
> ShadowUser that was never free). Basically they record the incremental
> changes to your hard drive while they are active and will remove them when
> you reboot so the hard drive is [logically] back to the prior state.
>
> Of course, you could save an image of your partitions or disks and then
> restore them to wipe out all changes made after the image got created but
> that is a lot of time to restore from the image to get back to the base
> state.

Hi,

Thanks for the info. There are reasons which I can't do clean install.
1. I am leaving my job and anyone could think I am up to something if I do a
clean install.
2. Clean install will lost a license which the organisation can't afford.

Apoloy this may came across as blunt but I just want to remove my visits to
anysites, download or personal details on forms.

Look forward to your further suggestion.


"Malke" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Smiley wrote:
>> Hi there,
>>
>> I don't want to physically destroy or nuke the drive (have done that many
>> times) but just to removed personally info so that anyone else would
>> still carry on using the same computer but without traces of last
>> person's 'present'
>
> 1, Format the drive and clean-install Windows.
> 2, Or, if you trust that data recovery software isn't going to be used,
> create a new user account and delete the old one. You will be given the
> option to save the files - don't.
>
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Further update -

For example, if I had visit a site or did a search on Google, whatever I had
search will still be there, one thing I want is to remove such info.


"Smiley" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:fm29pi$pj8$1$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> Thanks for the info. There are reasons which I can't do clean install.
> 1. I am leaving my job and anyone could think I am up to something if I do
> a clean install.
> 2. Clean install will lost a license which the organisation can't afford.
>
> Apoloy this may came across as blunt but I just want to remove my visits
> to anysites, download or personal details on forms.
>
> Look forward to your further suggestion.
>
>
> "Malke" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Smiley wrote:
>>> Hi there,
>>>
>>> I don't want to physically destroy or nuke the drive (have done that
>>> many times) but just to removed personally info so that anyone else
>>> would still carry on using the same computer but without traces of last
>>> person's 'present'
>>
>> 1, Format the drive and clean-install Windows.
>> 2, Or, if you trust that data recovery software isn't going to be used,
>> create a new user account and delete the old one. You will be given the
>> option to save the files - don't.
>>
>>
>> Malke
>> --
>> Elephant Boy Computers
>> www.elephantboycomputers.com
>> "Don't Panic!"
>> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
>
>

Smiley wrote:
> Further update -
>
> For example, if I had visit a site or did a search on Google, whatever I had
> search will still be there, one thing I want is to remove such info.
>
>
> "Smiley" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:fm29pi$pj8$1$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi,
>>
>> Thanks for the info. There are reasons which I can't do clean install.
>> 1. I am leaving my job and anyone could think I am up to something if I do
>> a clean install.
>> 2. Clean install will lost a license which the organisation can't afford.
>>
>> Apoloy this may came across as blunt but I just want to remove my visits
>> to anysites, download or personal details on forms.

Clear your browsers' history, cache, private settings, etc. If you are
able to install a program, then try CCleaner. Do *not* use its registry
cleaning function. Your soon-to-be-former employers will be able to
retrieve all of this data if they want using data recovery/forensic
techniques but the data will not be apparent to anyone just using the
computer regularly.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Hi beside the CCleaner, any setting which I would do, for example in
internet explorer.

Also anything else that I could tried as there were some personal document
on the drive which naturally I don't want anyone access them even after I
left.



"Malke" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Smiley wrote:
>> Further update -
>>
>> For example, if I had visit a site or did a search on Google, whatever I
>> had search will still be there, one thing I want is to remove such info.
>>
>>
>> "Smiley" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:fm29pi$pj8$1$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Thanks for the info. There are reasons which I can't do clean install.
>>> 1. I am leaving my job and anyone could think I am up to something if I
>>> do a clean install.
>>> 2. Clean install will lost a license which the organisation can't
>>> afford.
>>>
>>> Apoloy this may came across as blunt but I just want to remove my visits
>>> to anysites, download or personal details on forms.
>
> Clear your browsers' history, cache, private settings, etc. If you are
> able to install a program, then try CCleaner. Do *not* use its registry
> cleaning function. Your soon-to-be-former employers will be able to
> retrieve all of this data if they want using data recovery/forensic
> techniques but the data will not be apparent to anyone just using the
> computer regularly.
>
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User