delete

Erasing personal information has become serious business for computer users. File Waster offers you an opportunity to perform a variety of tasks to help keep unwanted eyes from looking at your files.

This is a no-frills program that may look intimidating to first-time users. Fortunately, it makes wiping your data or encrypting files very simple. By dragging the files into File Washer's display, users can decide what they would like to do. While this works well for single files, it would be a chore for large batches of folders and files. Fortunately, File Washer is equipped with a Cabinet … Read more

Cookies are a big problem for users because they can pile up quickly and possibly track your computer activity. Many browsers come with programs to delete these little problems, but Cookie Monster presents itself as a way to quickly and expertly cleanse your hard drive of cookies.

This freeware program is an incredibly simple way to cleanse your computer of the little bits of information that build up and slow down performance. This program has a very simple display that should not take new users much time to master. Depending on your level of interest, you can browse through cookies … Read more

Hard Drive Washer offers users a chance to detect and delete some of the peskiest files on a computer: temporary files. With a program that quickly and efficiently deletes these hard-drive-slowing files, this program aims to speed up your system.

Hard Drive Washer jumps directly into cleaning your hard drive with a simple start menu that gives you the choice to begin right away or to select options. The options menu allows users to focus their attention to specific drives or file types they wish to have removed from the computer. In addition, there is a scheduling option available, which … Read more

If you need sensitive data deleted without a trace, look no further than this easy to use application.

Secure Eraser has a colorful interface with three main tabs any user can understand. The program features include secure file and folder deletion, system cleaning, and Registry cleaning. The Secure File Deletion tab is fairly self-explanatory, as it simply deletes user-designated files and folders after overwriting the original file with random data. These deleted files and folders are completely erased and not just sent to the Recycle Bin. System Cleaning allows users to clear up temporary files, Internet Explorer settings, and the … Read more

If you're comfortable browsing for files and can push a button, you can use this effective file deletion tool. 1-abc.net File Washer proved to be as easy to use as it was in permanently deleting files.

The compact interface gets right to business, offering four buttons along the bottom to add files and folders and delete items. A pull-down menu lets you choose from eight wiping methods, including Gutman. We liked the brief but helpful onscreen descriptions for each method, although the English was a little rough. Once you hit the Delete Files button, a prompt appears asking … Read more

Thanks to an apparent lack of clean-up on iTunes' part, many users have oodles of disk space that is being unnecessarily occupied by old iPhone and/or iPod touch software updates.

As described reader Doug Eldred:

"I have 10 files, ranging from 150 MB to 250 MB for my iPod touch, and much smaller files for two other iPods, one of which I no longer own. They total well over 2 GB! Now, if I really need to keep restore files back to version 1.0, I will, but I'd be happy to pitch the older ones." … Read more

Where the built-in and sluggish Windows Add or Remove Programs option fails, freeware Revo picks up the slack. It builds out a useful feature set on top of a fairly light, 1.5MB installation. Launching Revo fires up the Uninstaller screen, which shows icons and titles of all programs installed on your machine. You can change the View to List or Details, if you'd like more information. Right-clicking gives users a list of choices, from the fundamental like Uninstall and Remove from list, to Search Google, Show the installation directory, and quick access to the app's Help file, … Read more

Send unwanted files to the point of no return with this simple privacy tool, but we weren't impressed with its hard-to-find configuration menu and lack of a Help file.

Accessing 4Neurons Eraser is simply a matter of right-clicking on a file or folder and selecting the Erase option from your context menu. As soon as we selected it, a window popped up to confirm our choice. One click and the file was completely removed. Accessing the configurations menu proved to be much more cumbersome, and we had to perform a search just to locate it. The program doesn't … Read more

You probably know that when you delete a file, you're not really removing the information from your storage device. Instead, you're designating the space taken up by the file as available for storing new data, should it be needed.

A properly motivated person can recover the deleted information. In fact, data recovery tools such as the free Recuva exist for this very purpose. To keep prying eyes from perusing your deleted data, you need to write over the digital bits that comprise the file. That's where secure-erase utilities come in.

(By the way, the process of recovering … Read more