Many programs that you use on your computer have history functions. For example, Internet Explorer remembers information about the sites pages that you visited. Microsoft Word remembers information about the last few document files you opened, so you can easily open them again. Programs usually keep this information in order to help you.
But, sometimes, this information can be a problem. You may not want other people to know what documents, web sites and multimedia files you opened.
The History Cleaner tool allows you to quickly delete all these usage tracks stored by programs on your computer.
You can select the items you wish to clean from any of the two panels, and then press the Next button to clean all the selected items. Or, if you just want to perform a test without actually deleting anything, you can press the Just Test button.
The items you can clean are divided into two panels:
You can right click with your mouse on a panel and you will be prompted to select all items, none of them, or to invert the current selection.
From the upper panel, you can choose from several items what you may wish to clean:
| Internet Explorer addresses you typed in the address bar | Every time you type an address into
Internet Explorer's address bar, it saves that address on your
hard-disk. Internet Explorer keeps records containing all the web
addresses you typed in the address bar, and other information. This History Cleaner option deletes all the web addresses that you typed in the address bar.
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| Internet Explorer visited pages (the browser history) | Every time you visit a web page,
Internet Explorer, it saves the page's web address on your hard-disk.
Internet Explorer keeps records containing the addresses of all the web
pages you visited, and other information. This History Cleaner option deletes all the information about the web pages you visited.
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| Internet Explorer saved cookies | Some of the sites you access
ask Internet Explorer to store a cookie on your computer. A cookie is a
small file containing information. The next time you visit that web
site, Internet Explorer will send the cookie back to the site. This is
how some Internet sites, like Amazon.com, can remember who you are
and/or your shopping cart contents the next time you visit them.
However, you may not wish some web sites to know that you have visited
them before. Read more info on cookies
here. This History Cleaner option deletes all the cookies stored on your computer, with the exception of the "protected" cookies (read more about protected cookies here). You can see the list of protected cookies by pressing the "Protected cookies" button located just underneath the upper panel.
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| Temporary Internet Explorer files | While you surf the web, the Internet
Explorer browser keeps a cache of pages you already visited. It saves
all the contents of these pages, including text and images, to a special
folder on your hard-disk. This folder is also called the Internet cache.
Because of this, when you visit a web page again, the browser is able to
quickly show you the page because it already has its content in the
cache, and doesn't need to download it from the web server. This
Internet cache feature helps you browse the web faster. However, someone may examine your Internet cache and see what web sites and pages you visited, what images you viewed, etc. Another problem is the fact that in time these pages that were automatically saved will take up a lot of your computer's disk space. This History Cleaner options deletes all of the content of the Internet cache.
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| Windows temporary files | While working, many computer programs
and also Windows itself create a lot of temporary files. While these
files are not harmful in themselves, they tend to accumulate and take up
a lot of disk space. Also, when your disk space is low, Windows works
slower than usual. This History Cleaner option deletes all the temporary files, created by Windows and by other programs. This feature is absolutely safe; it avoids deleting the files that are in use when you run it, so the programs that are also running at the time don't have any problem.
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| Start menu "Run" history | There is a Run option in your Start
Menu. This allows you to enter a command line which will be executed by
your computer. Windows keeps a list of the command lines that have been
entered. This History Cleaner option deletes the list containing the entered command lines.
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| Start Menu list of recently accessed documents | The Start Menu contains a list of
documents you recently opened. Because of this, anybody who sits at your
computer can see what documents you recently opened. This History Cleaner option deletes this list.
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| The contents of the Recycle Bin | When you delete a file on your computer,
it usually ends up in your Recycle Bin. If you go to the Recycle Bin,
you can see all the files you deleted, and undelete them. While this is
a good feature, it also means that somebody can open your Recycle Bin
and see what files you wanted to get rid of. This History Cleaner option allows you to delete all of the content of your Recycle Bin for good. |
In the lower panel, you can select which application's tracks you wish to remove. If you select, for example, Word XP, then the last opened documents list of Microsoft Word XP will be erased when you press the Next button.
The Cleaning settings and Restore settings buttons allow you to customize the cleaning for each application. This feature is for expert use only, and is useful only if you installed applications in directories other than the default ones. Here is the list of applications supported by History Cleaner:
Access 2000
Access XP
ACDSee 3.x
ACDSee 4.x
ACDSee 5.x
Acrobat Reader 3.x
Acrobat Reader 4.x
Acrobat Reader 5.x
Acrobat Reader 6.x
Ad-aware 6
Agent NewsReader
AOL 6.0 Temp File
AOL 7.0 Chat Log
AOL Instant Messenger
AX-Icons 4.x
BearShare
CoffeeCup GIF Animator
Copernic 2001 basic
Copernic 2001 Plus
Copernic 2001 Pro
CuteFTP 4.0
CuteHTML
Divx Player
DLExpert v0.99
Download Accelerator (DAP)
Erase Start Menu
Excel 2000
Excel XP
Flash 5
Flash Get
FlashFXP
FotoCanvas Lite
FrontPage XP
FrontPage2000
Fun CD
GetRight 4.x
GO!ZLLA
Google Tool Bar
Hotbar 3.0
HTML Help Workshop
ICQ 2000
ICQ 2003a
IE Downloaded Program Files
iMesh
IrfanView
IrfanView 3.x
Jasc Animation Shop 3
KaZaA
LeapFTP 2.61
Lop.com
LView Pro
Macromedia Dreamweaver 4.0
Macromedia Dreamweaver MX
Macromedia Firework 3.0
Macromedia Firework 4.0
Macromedia Firework MX
Macromedia Flash MX
Mass Download
Media Jukebox
MediaPlayer
MediaPlayer
Microsoft Photo Editor
mIRC
Morpheus
Mozilla Mail
MS Imaging
MS Paint
MS Photo Editor
MSN Messager
MusicMatch Jukebox
NeoPlanet Browser
Net Vampire 3.x
Netants
NetCaptor
Netscape Mail
Office 2000
Office 97
Office XP
Opera 7
Paint Shop Pro 7
PhotoCanvas 2.0
PhotoCanvas 2.0
PhotoImpact 6.0
PhotoImpact 7.0
PhotoImpact 8.0
Photoshop 5.0
PicoZip
Popup Purger
PowerArc
PowerDVD
PowerZip 6.0
QuickTime
Ras Autodial
Real Download 4.0
RealOne
Realplayer 8.0
Save Now
SmartDraw 6
Sonique
SWiSH 2.0
The Playa
Trillian
Ulead GIF Animator
UltraEdit
WebFerret
WinAce
Winamp 2.7x
WinRar 2.x
WinRar 3.x
Winzip
Word 2000
Word Pad
Word XP
Yahoo! Message
ZipMagic
Zone Alarm Log File