delete

Powerful porn remover

Porn Terminator allows users to scan their computers for objectionable content, analyzing images based on skin tone. We found the program to be surprisingly effective at picking up on pornography, although it's not perfect.

The interface is simple and will be easy for anyone to navigate. Users need only select the directory they want to search and click Scan Now. The program searches for objectionable images, movies, and Web sites, and then allows users to review the findings and delete content as needed. We were a bit skeptical that the program could differentiate pornographic content from other images, but … Read more

Threaded Messaging

One of the features I did like about my old Instinct was threaded messaging. With Sprint's service being very unpredictable in our area there are days when texts and calls seem to get lost, only to show up hours after they've been sent. When you're sitting on your porch and you get a text from a friend that says "What aisle are you in now?" it's nice to have it show up right under the text you sent them two hours earlier that reads "Cool! I'm in Walmart too!"

The Palm … Read more

Gettin' In The Groove

After three weeks of living with two phones, I've finally gotten the Pre on my own Sprint account. No more Samsung Instinct. No more charging two, carrying two, and texting from two phones.

With my life all bundled up in one smartphone I'm finally gettin' in the groove. I love the Palm Pre more every day!

Favorite features to date:

Flick Right to Delete; whether notifications, individual emails, texts/IM's, or photos the user can flick the item off the screen, to the right, and the item is deleted.

Tweed; With all the functionality of my favorite … Read more

Hard-drive cleaner

QuickWiper provides users with a simple program to cleanse your computer of unwanted files and folders. In addition, it provides several key features that help clean the hard drive even more, making it a great all-around product.

Most users will not have any trouble jumping right into QuickWiper. The screen consists of only a few command icons, and whenever the mouse is held over them, a brief description is provided. While there is a Help file, most users can skip it and start immediately cleaning their computer. Wiping a file or folder is an easy task. Users simply click on … Read more

Goodbye unwanted copies

This program scans and locates duplicate files on your computer. It's easy to use and navigate; however, we found its search capabilities too limited.

Duplicate File Remover's interface isn't flashy, but it is easy to use and navigate. Simply open the application and select which folder(s) on your computer that you want to search, and the search will begin. When the search is finished, a summary of all found duplicate files is displayed. From there, you have the option of deleting, copying, moving, or hard-linking the files. For our tests, we knew we had some duplicate … Read more

Cryptic messages

Just as its name suggests, DataRecovery aims to recovery files that had been deleted, including compressed and encrypted files. It also claims to wipe files so that they cannot be recovered. However, we were not impressed by its unintuitive, amateurish user interface.

The user interface offers very little direction with its vague commands. It consists of three commands--Scan, Wipe, and Recover. There are no other settings or configurations. We selected a hard drive and clicked the Scan button. The program did scan our computer very quickly, but a window popped up that was difficult to decipher. It had something to … Read more

Simplified backup

Don't be fooled by this simple backup program's simple appearance. It successfully backed up our files and folders and managed to throw in a few extras.

DFIncBackup Home has a very intuitive and straightforward user interface. The helpful wizard will especially appeal to users who are new to backup programs. Experienced users will appreciate the scheduling and password-protection features. The Edit menu was a little cluttered, but we were able to edit all of the backup configurations we had set while using the wizard with little effort. The Configurations menu let us check for free disk space on … Read more

Boot it and nuke it

Darik's not kidding about the "nuke" in the name of his program: use DBAN only if you want to completely eradicate any trace of data on a hard drive. This is the ultimate in data shredding--there's no recovery once you've used it.

There are two work flows for using DBAN. When it loads, you can type "autonuke" and press Enter. From there, DBAN will show you the progress being made on wiping your hard drive's data. Larger HDs will take longer, of course. There's a more configurable option, as well. Hit … Read more

How to spring clean your hard drive

Whether getting rid of an old computer or just making a clean start for your favorite hard drive--do hard drives even get to be honored as "favorites?"--it's important to wipe it clean. With one's and zero's and data recovery, though, it's harder than you might think to make sure that your personal data is gone forever. This collection of drive bombs showcases four free programs for internal and external drive data deletion, as well as files and folders on the fly.

For shredding individual files or folders, or entire drives, Eraser reminds me … Read more