Removing traces in Windows 10. How to make Windows forget everything.

[Tomcat]

Cookies, browsing history, saved passwords, data from the Windows registry - all these jewels can fall into someone's dirty hands if these hands get to the keyboard of your car. That is why it is very important to be able to delete logs, caches and other cookies so that someone does not accidentally find out information that is better to keep to yourself.

Every "tyzhprogrammer" at least once in his life has come across requests from acquaintances, unfamiliar and other sons of his mother's friend "to clean the computer, because it slows down." Once a very solid and serious-looking uncle brought me such a laptop. The machine turned out to be sunk from top to bottom, and the crypt mined by hidden miners would be enough to double the GDP of some small African country. The history of the browser revealed the mystery of the origin of this zoo named after Gerald Durrell: the owner of the beech turned out to be a regular client of ladies of not too hard behavior and a pet lover in the most unsightly sense. The moral of this fable is simple and unpretentious, like the songs of the "Brilliant" group: if you want to put some frostbitten punk like me at the keyboard, first tidy yourself up well.

Forgetting the recent past​

Windows, like a romantic young lady, cherishes warm memories of the documents recently opened by the user and running programs. To make her forget about the past and start life from scratch, you can use some suitable software, but for a real cowboy this is, of course, a crap. There is a much simpler and more effective method - without any cunning utilities and other lameness there.

Press Windows + R and type in the window that opens recent, then do not forget to press Enter. In front of you is a list of all files and folders that the current user has accessed recently. Select the contents of this folder by pressing Ctrl + A and boldly press Del.

Now, in the same way, clean out the following folders:

• %appdata%\microsoft\windows\recent\automaticdestinations\
• %appdata%\microsoft\windows\recent\CustomDestinations

This is where paths to file objects used by Windows applications are stored. To automate the process, you can use the following script:

@ECHO OFF
TITLE ReCeNT FiLEs cLEanUp
del /F /Q %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\*
del /F /Q %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\*
del /F /Q %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations\*
PAUSE

Save the script in a plain text file, assign an extension to it, .bat and run it whenever you're in a playful mood.

To turn off the display of frequently used programs in the main menu in Windows 10, press Windows + R, type in the field ms-settingsersonalizationthat opens , in the "Settings" window, click the rat on the "Start" icon, and then disable the functions "Show recently added applications", "Show most Frequently Used Applications "and" Show Recently Opened Items in Start Menu Jump Lists. "
Disable all unnecessary in the main menu of Windows 10.
Finally, you can bang the history of the Windows file manager, which he shoves everywhere: in the address bar, in the virtual folder "Quick Access", shows when you right-click on the icon of the running explorer in the taskbar, and even uses it to autocomplete in the "Run" window ... Launch Explorer, open the "View" tab and press the "Options" button. In the "Privacy" section, uncheck both boxes and click on the "Clear" button. Cleanliness is pure Tide!

Clearing the history of "Semiconductor".
It would be very nice if Windows nevertheless learned how to nail unnecessary files on its own after the end of the user session. This can be configured using local group policies. Press Windows + R, type the line in the Run window gpedit.msc, do not forget Enter. Go to User Configuration → Administrative Templates → Start Menu and Taskbar and enable the following policies:

• "Clear the log of recently opened documents on exit";
• "Clearing the list of recently used programs for new users";
• "Clear tile notifications on exit";
• "Delete the list of programs pinned to the Start menu";
• "Delete the list of frequently used programs in the" Start "menu";
• "Disable tracking user actions";
• "Do not store information about recently opened documents";
• "Remove menu" Recent Documents "from the" Start "menu";
• Do not display or track navigation items in remote location lists;
• Remove the Recently Added List from the Start Menu.

Using local policies, you can teach Windows to clean up after itself.

Removing temporary files​

Temporary files not only take up disk space (which is never enough anyway), but sometimes contain a lot of useful information. You have probably been able to restore Word documents from .tmp files when a user suddenly ran out of electricity and hesitated to buy an uninterruptible power supply in advance. It is clear that anyone can perform a similar operation if they wish. "Ten" stores temporary files in several folders, which can be opened by typing the appropriate path in the Run box (Windows + R):

• %temp% (aka C:\Users\%Username%\AppData\Local\Temp) - temporary user files;
• %windir%\temp - temporary files of the Windows itself;
• %windir%\Prefetch - file cache to speed up the loading of the operating system and applications.

You can clean the contents of these folders manually, or you can use the script:

@ECHO OFF
TITLE TeMp0RaRY F1Les re:MOVeR
RD %TEMP%\. /S /Q
RD %windir%\temp\. /S /Q
RD %windir%\Prefetch \. /S /Q
PAUSE

When launched, the script will delete all temporary files that are not currently occupied by other processes. You can run it manually or on a schedule. And you can do the same with the help of a graphical, sorry for the expression, user interface. Open the main menu and in the "Parameters" window go to the "System -> Memory" section. Click on "Temporary files", then check all the boxes on the next screen and click "Delete files".
Clean up temporary files.

Remove cache and browser history​

Windows stores temporary Internet files of the user in a daddy %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files, and cookies - in %USERPROFILE%\Cookies. The user does not have access to both folders even under the local administrator - these restrictions are introduced for security reasons. Therefore, the contents of the cache and cookies can be cleared manually, since the browser settings allow you to do this easily and naturally.

Edge​

The successor to Internet Explorer - Edge serves only to enable Windows 10 users to download a normal browser. Nevertheless, for the sake of order, it should also be mentioned: click on the [...] button in the upper right corner of the Edge window, select "Options" in the list that opens, and in it - "Privacy and Security". Click on the "Select what you want to clear" button in the "Clear browser data" section, check all the boxes and click on the "Clear" button.
Removing data from Microsoft Edge.

Firefox​

Open the menu by clicking on the appropriate button in the upper right corner of the browser window and select "Settings" in the list that appears, then "Privacy and Security". Find the section "Cookies and data", click "Delete data", check all the boxes in the window that opens and click "Delete".
Removing data from Firefox.

Chrome​

Here, too, you need to click on the button in the upper right corner, go to the section "Settings → Privacy and security → Clear history". In the window that opens, select the "All time" item in the menu, check the appropriate boxes and click "Delete data".
Removing data from Chrome.
By default, Chrome deletes all data both locally and from the Google profile if the user is logged into the account. To save your browser history and cookies to the Google Cloud, you need to sign out of your account before clearing your browser storage.

Opera​

Here, the scheme of actions is similar: the button in the upper right corner is the "Clear" button in the "Privacy and Security" section, after which you need to select the "All the time" item in the menu, check the boxes and click "Delete data".

Yandex browser​

Here you need to click the "Yandex Browser Settings" button in the very top panel, go to the "History" section and click on the "Clear history" inscription at the bottom left. The already familiar window will appear with the choice of the period and the checkboxes of the data types to be deleted. Select the desired items and click "Clear".

We clean the registry​

The Windows system registry contains a lot of useful trash information that can be used with ill intentions. This is, for example, a list of recently connected USB devices to the computer or the location of files.

The problem is that it is impossible to change, let alone delete, some registry keys even from under the administrator's account, and working with it manually requires too much time and effort. To save a couple of extra hours for something more fun, you can use a freeware program to clean your registry. For example, LittleRegistryCleaner .

Softina is quite easy to use, apart from the fact that it requires the .NET Framework to work. On the left side of the LittleRegistryCleaner window, you can see the registry keys and the categories of data stored in them. The "Scan registry" button starts a search for errors and unnecessary keys that can be removed using the "Troubleshoot" button.
LittleRegistryCleaner Registry Cleaner.
By the way, using the "Tools" menu, you can launch the convenient "Startup Manager" tool, which allows you to clean all unnecessary things from autorun - the necessary changes will be made to the registry automatically.

Another program for cleaning unnecessary data stored in the registry is called USB Oblivion. It is even easier to use it than to pick in your ear with a screwdriver: you start the software, check the box "Perform real cleaning" and click on the "Clean" button.
This is how USB Oblivion works.
After that, the program will restart under the administrator, stop Windows services that interfere with it and delete all data from the registry that may even carry a hint of confidentiality. After completing this tedious process, the utility will reboot the system, do not be alarmed.

Delete the DNS cache​

DNS is not only a chain of selling computer junk, but also a system for addressing domain names on your Internet. All calls to DNS servers are cached, and the system stores them as carefully as the grandmother - the sliders of her beloved grandchildren. To flush the DNS cache, run a console command ipconfig /flushdns.

Afterword​

Of course, all of the above actions can be performed using all sorts of specialized programs like some kind of Wise care 365. But personally, I do not trust them: firstly, free utilities often drag along a bunch of advertising crap software, secondly, they delete information very selectively, periodically missing something, and thirdly, after criminal stories with CCleaner, use similar tools are sometimes more expensive for themselves.

It is much safer to do everything manually or use partial automation using scripts, the examples of which I gave above. You can collect one universal script from them yourself as your homework.