Customizing Advanced Privacy Protector

•  Windows and History Traces
•  Internet Related Traces
•  Explorer and Start Menu Traces
•  File and Folder Traces

Windows and History Traces

Windows keep track of user actions and store them. These tracks contain the sensitive info such as which item user selects the most, user click history, which folders were opened etc.

Here are options available under Windows and History Traces.

Delete Windows Explorer Registry Streams

Streams are history kept by Windows about your Explorer window settings. If you need to eliminate history tracks of your file and folder accesses from Windows explorer, it is recommended that you check these items. Please not then when Windows Explorer Registry Streams are deleted Windows Explorer will show appearance it shows when first booted with default preferences. This is perfectly Normal and reduces the clutter out of your Windows Registry.

Delete Windows Desktop Registry Streams

It deletes the history track kept by Windows of what all you do on your desktop.

Delete User Track History by Windows

Windows keep track of user actions and store them. These tracks contain the sensitive info such as which item user selects the most, user click history, which folders were opened etc. It cleans all such traces.

Delete Application Logs

Windows 98 and above keeps the log of how often you run your programs. This option enables cleans these traces and logs and frees the precious disk space.

Delete Common Dialogs Open-Save History

Windows keeps the track of files you open, you save using the common File Open and File Save Dialog. Thatís why sometimes when you want to open a file it starts at the place where you have opened the file last.

Delete Windows Media Player URLís

Windows Media Player remembers which movies you have viewed, which songs you have heard, from where. If you view movies from the internet there names and website address. You can use this option to delete all these unwanted tracks about you.

Internet Related Traces

Internet programs store lot of information about you, such as history of sites visited, cookies by web site to track user browsing habits and whole lot of files for later offline browsing.

Here are options available under Internet Traces.

Delete typed URL History

Internet Explorer and all other browsers keep record of URLs you type in there Address Bar. So when ever you type a address it shows which URLs you have visited past in a drop down list. This option clears these typed URLs.

Delete the cookies to ensure privacy

A cookie is a small data file sent to you by a web site and it is stored on your computer. Cookies were originally meant to speed up the process of logging on a web site that you had previously visited. But now beside the above objective they are used for tracking user browsing habits, such as which sites you visit, whether you have purchase any product over internet, providing marketing companies with your personal information, tracking which country you reside.

Delete History Records to a website

Each time you visit a web site, either by typing the site address into your browser or through a click on a link that takes you to another website, the name and location of the site is stored by your web browser locally on your hard drive. Though it provides a good way to see where you have been on internet, but it is also very much revealing. As it contains all the information as to each and every site you have visited even if you did not intend to go there again.

Delete Temporary cache

Whenever you visit to a website, pages, graphics, are stored on your computer for faster access next time you visit that site again. Now it contains all the information which sites you have visited or sometimes whole sites on your PC. It is very much revealing and consumes too much disk space. It is always better to clean them regularly.

Where ever possible apply the above settings to Netscape and Opera browsers also

If you use alternate browser to Microsoft Internet Explore such as from Netscape and from Opera. Privacy Protector and Evidence Eraser allows you to apply the above settings to these other two common browsers also.

index.dat operation

Advanced Privacy Protector fills the index.dat file with garbage and deletes it at next system startup automatically.

Explorer and Start Menu Traces

Start Menu and Windows Explorer stores lot of secret data about the user, such as recent documents, user click history, which programs user runs most etc.

• Clear the Start Menu Run History: Start Menu stores the program you have run from it. Just Click Start Menu and then Run and you will see a drop down list of programs you have run.
• Clear the Find File History: Windows remembers for the files you have searched on your system using the Find File Tool.
• Clear the Find Computer History: If you often search for other computers over a network, a record is maintained. It clears that record.
• Clear Start Menu Click History: Windows remember what you have clicked on your start menu with date and time, which program was started as a click, the sorted layout of start menu, personalized menus.
• Clear Recent Documents: Start Menu stores the documents or files you have opened recently. Though helpful it will also reveal on which documents you are working correctly.
• Clear The Network Browsing History: It clears the recent networks you have been browsing.
• Clear Windows Explorer OCX Streams: Windows keep list of most commonly used OCX controls, there information, there frequency of use.
• Clear Printer Streams: Windows stores information which documents you have printed, there information, if you have multiple printers on which printer etc.

Files and Folder Traces

Windows and other programs leave traces on your system in the form of temporary files, log files, failed installations. These files may contain sensitive data.

• Delete Recent Document Short Cuts: Windows Store Recent Documents in two places, in Registry and your hard disk. Recent Documents are the documents or files you have opened recently. Though helpful it will also reveal on which documents you are working correctly.
• Delete Application logs by Windows: Windows store the application logs about which program was installed on your system, number of times it is run at different places on your System.
• Remove Temporary Files created by Windows: Temporary files are the data files used by programs to store data temporarily. It is the duty of program creating these files to remove them. But most of the times they are left and could contain the sensitive data.