Australian PC World - Wipe out all Web tracks

Wipe out all Web tracks

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Considering how eager Web surfers are to hide all traces of their URL visits, you'd think Netscape and Microsoft would include privacy features in their browsers. It wouldn't be hard to make Navigator or Explorer automatically erase cache directories, bookmarks, and history and temporary files and even clean out URLs from Windows 95's registry after a user logs off the Internet. But neither browser does.
Both browsers do have features that will erase bookmarks and history files globally, and Navigator even lets you erase the disk cache where it stores graphics from the Net, but it makes you pick through labyrinths of menus. Neither browser is equipped to clean up these things automatically after a Web surfing session. And neither offers an easy way to block cookies.
David Hartl thought he'd found a solution in Tweak UI (one of Microsoft's PowerToys -- a handy set of utilities which frequently gets a mention in our Help Screen pages). He checked all the boxes on the Paranoia page, but it still didn't delete all information pertaining to URLs he'd visited.
If you use Tweak UI and enable the Paranoia options, this will clear Internet Explorer's history file, but it won't erase URLs from the registry. Nor will it exterminate cache directories and temporary files. Also, you need to shut down Windows and restart or reboot for the purge to take effect.

Tweak UI clears URLs from IE's history file, but not from the Windows registry

James Hoffer devised a more complete solution: a batch file that deletes all history and temporary files, the cache directory, and cookies. Here are sample batch files for both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer:

Delete all traces of your Web whereabouts with one of these simple batch files for Navigator and Explorer

For Netscape Navigator
echo y>c:\windows\tempor~1\y.txt
del c:\progra~1\netscape\naviga~1\cache\*.* <c:\windows\tempor~1\y.txt
del c:\progra~1\netscape\naviga~1\cookies.txt
del c:\progra~1\netscape\naviga~1\netscape.hst
del c:\windows\cookies\*.* <c:\windows\tempor~1\y.txt
del c:\windows\history\*.* <c:\windows\tempor~1\y.txt
del c:\windows\tempor~1\*.* <c:\windows\tempor~1\y.txt

For Internet Explorer
echo y>c:\windows\tempor~1\y.txt
del c:\windows\cookies\*.* <c:\windows\tempor~1\y.txt
del c:\windows\history\*.* <c:\windows\tempor~1\y.txt
del c:\windows\tempor~1\*.* <c:\windows\tempor~1\y.txt

If you're running Windows 95, you can launch your batch file by clicking on a desktop Shortcut after you close your browser. To create the Shortcut, find the batch file in Windows Explorer, right-click and drag it to the desktop, then select Create Shortcut Here from the resulting pop-up menu. If, after running one of the batch files, you get any "Access Denied" messages, restart Windows 95 and run the batch file again.

NSClean automatically erases all evidence of Web visits

Maybe the best and easiest strategy is to get a copy of NSClean Privacy Software from Kevin McAleavey (http://www.wizvax.net/kevinmca). It deletes your Navigator bookmarks, history file, and cache directory and refuses cookies. IEClean, also from McAleavey, works similarly for Internet Explorer. Each program costs $US30 for the Windows 3.x version, $US40 for the Windows 95 version.
- Judy Heim
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Category: Internet
Issue: Jan 1998
Pages: 171