Clean up of personal info on XP machine

  • Thread starter Thread starter Smiley
  • Start date Start date
S

Smiley

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 said:
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.
Click to expand...

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
 
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,
 
in message
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'
Click to expand...


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 said:
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'
Click to expand...

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
 
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 said:
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'
Click to expand...


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.
Click to expand...
 
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.
 
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 said:
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.
Click to expand...

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
 
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.
 
Smiley said:
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.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but I've already given you all the information there is about
this. To reiterate, you can delete documents and use CCleaner to remove
temporary files, browser cache, etc. but if your employer wants to find
out what you've been doing, they can. The only way to insure nothing can
be retrieved from the drive is to a) shred files with third-party
software; or 2) wipe the drive with something like Darik's Boot and Nuke
or physically destroy it. End of story.

Since as far as I'm concerned there's nothing more to be said, I'm done
with this thread. Good luck in your new job.


Malke
 
in message
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.
Click to expand...


Then wipe the disk.

www.killdisk.com
 
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