Get rid of unwanted files, cache and cookies
Panicwipe is a one click solution to delete unwanted files securely from your system. The freeware is able to delete programs, files, folders, registry entries, IE cache, history and cookies with one simple click. You've got full control over the whole process of course: you select the data that you want to delete, everything else remains as it is. One nice feature of PanicWipe is the ability to securely delete the data by overwriting the files up to ten times with random data before deleting the file.
You may also specify a list of programs that will be terminated before the deletion process to avoid the "files in use" error message. Four different commands of PanicWipe can be password protected, those are start, execute, close and cancel.
Update: The PanicWipe software is no longer maintained, and the website of the project returns an unrelated parking page. I'd suggest you give the excellent CCleaner a try instead which you can use for very much the same purpose.
It supports a similar feature set, from cleaning web browser related files to application files. It supports all major web browsers, and hundreds of applications and Windows-internal directories and file formats that are not really needed for the operating system to function properly. But that is not all that you can do with the program. You can have it scan the Registry for invalid entries, leftovers and other information that may leak information and are not needed at all for the operating system to function properly, and configure it to securely delete all information so that they can't be restored at a later point in time anymore.
Add to that a collection of tools that include an application uninstaller and startup manager, plus a drive wiper that you can use to delete all free space on a drive to make the contents unrecoverable.
Tips
- Click Options > Settings and enable Secure File Deletion here to overwrite the file once or multiple times during the removal process. You can enable Wipe alternative data streams and cluster tips as well for a more thorough deletion.
- CCleaner can wipe the free disk space of your hard drives as well which removes traces of files from them that you have deleted before.
- Make sure you use the include or exclude options. Included folders or files are always removed when you run the software, while excluded data is never touched.
