Windows 7 compatible software
The news of the new operation system get into the Internet space faster and faster but the compatible programs with this system are still a little in number. Here is the beginning of a list that holds tested by me a few programs really working on Windows 7 RC:
- Program: Mil Shield version 7.0; Results: a successful installation/the setup program works as it should be/the program works normal and without no bugs on Windows 7.
- Program: Firefox version 3.5.2; Results: a successful installation/the setup program works as it should be/the program works normal and without no bugs on Windows 7.
- Program: Lavasoft Personal Firewall version 3.0; Results: a successful installation/the setup program works as it should be/the program works normal and without no bugs on Windows 7.
- Program: 7Zip version 4.65; Results: a successful installation/the setup program works as it should be/the program works normal and without no bugs on Windows 7.
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Delete history
editWhat is history and why is it dangerous?
Your computer (well, actually the programs on your computer) track and save many of your actions. For example Windows remembers which programs you have started, Internet Explorer remembers which websites you have visited, Google Toolbar remembers the words that you have searched for, and so on. These traces of your computer activity are commonly known as history.
Contrary to the popular belief that this is done in order to harm you as part of some sort of worldwide conspiracy, history is actually used for the purpose of making your computer experience more convenient. However, as in many other cases, the good things can be used for bad purposes. In this case the information about your computer habits can be used from someone to gather very private information about yourself and to harm you, your work, your business, or your family. The privacy threats include many more things than history. Nevertheless, history is one of the most obvious traces and is very easy to abuse.
There are two general ways to deal with history. The first one includes manual search and delete of history traces on your computer. The problem with this approach is that it is very tedious and error prone process, and (which is even more important) there are many kinds of history that are impossible to delete manually. The second way is to use specialized privacy-protection program, like Mil Shield and Webroot Windows Washer that will clean all the traces for you.
How to delete history?
Deleting of all history traces is very hard task that can not be done manually because most of them are stored in system areas that are not directly accessible from the user. Also the history traces are so many and they are scattered at so many places that their manual deletion would be very long and tedious work with high probability of mistakes that could lead to privacy holes or even render your computer unusable.
Mil Shield and Webroot Windows Washer are powerful privacy protection programs that was designed specifically to delete all types history that are described in this article; to clean and shred the index.dat files; and to clean all other privacy-related traces as cookies, Temporary Internet Files, AutoComplete forms and passwords, UserData records, and many others.
Delete temporary internet files (cache)
editWhat are Temporary Internet Files?
Temporary Internet Files are, in fact, the cache of the Internet Explorer. This means that when you load a web page with Internet Explorer, it is saved on your computer so that if you later decide to open the same page again, it will open a lot faster. Temporary Internet Files improve speed of web browsing and also make possible so called offline browsing, which gives you the ability to open the web pages from cache even when you are not connected to the Internet.
Despite all these positive things about Temporary Internet Files, they have one big drawback: they compromise your privacy. Everyone with access to your computer can look into your Temporary Internet Files folder (location of this folder is discussed here) and see the sites that you have visited in the past. You can manually delete the contents of Temporary Internet Files folder (explained here) but this will not erase all traces of the pages because a special file called Index.dat is placed in this folder and it will still preserve the names and even the dates of your first visits to many pages.
Can we delete all traces that can be used to determine which pages were visited? And can we enjoy the benefits of Temporary Internet Files without fear that this will make our online habits highly exposed? Both questions have one answer: you can use Mil Shield to clean all traces and even to select some sites that can be left in Temporary Internet Files if you wish.
How to delete Temporary Internet Files?
To delete Temporary Internet Files manually, do the following things:
1. Start Internet Explorer and click Tools menu, then select Internet Options... from this menu. This will open the Internet Options window. 2. Click General tab and then find in the section Temporary Internet Files the button Delete Files... and click it. A new dialog box opens. 3. In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the Delete all offline content check box if you want to delete all Web page content that you have made available offline. 4. Click OK to delete the files. Note that if you are doing this for the first time, the deleting can take a large amount of time, so be patient.
Mil Shield is a powerful privacy protection program that was designed specifically to clean and shred the Temporary Internet Files. Additional benefit is the ability to preserve the tracks from some chosen by you sites (selective cleaning), which makes your browsing more comfortable and safe (it is rather suspicious to always have empty history, cookies and Temporary Internet Files - it is better to leave some tracks from "innocent" sites). Mil Shield also cleans all other tracks as index.dat files, cookies, history, cache, AutoComplete records, UserData records, history of recently used folders and documents and many more.