CleanAfterMe is a free NirSoft tool that allows you to erase the computer history after you finish your work. This is especially useful if you logged on as administrator on a user's computer and want to make sure that you don't leave any traces. Since CleanAfterMe is a portable application, you can easily launch it remotely or run it from your USB rescue stick.
- Poll: How reliable are ChatGPT and Bing Chat? - Tue, May 23 2023
- Pip install Boto3 - Thu, Mar 24 2022
- Install Boto3 (AWS SDK for Python) in Visual Studio Code (VS Code) on Windows - Wed, Feb 23 2022
I've counted 29 items that CleanAfterMe checks. For example, it can erase your browser history (cookies, visited pages, etc. in Internet Explorer), your traces in Windows Explorer (Recent Folder, Run MRU list, etc.), Recycle bin, Clipboard, and Event log entries, etc.
You can erase each history item separately or erase your complete computer history in one go. The free cleaning tool allows you to open the location of each item to check what kind of history information is stored; for some items, additional description is provided.
Sometimes, simply deleting the computer history is not enough because traces of the data could still be recovered with a file system undelete tool. For these cases, CleanAfterMe can fill the corresponding file with zeros before it is deleted. This option has to be enabled first in the Advanced Options. Also useful is the cleaning report that shows which computer history items will be erased before you press the clean button.
Subscribe to 4sysops newsletter!
Of course, CleanAfterMe can't ensure that all computer history will be erased. For instance, if you use Chrome instead of Internet Explorer, then your browser history won't be removed. But, I think, the tool supports the most important history locations if you have to log on to a user's computer for troubleshooting.
CCleaner seems to be at the top of the list when it comes to apps like this.
Yes, CCleaner is also a great tool. Although I think it is not portable and therefore not suitable if you want to remove your traces after troubleshooting a PC
CCleaner have a portable build and work great. You can see it in http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/builds
Manuel, that’s interesting. Thanks!
Yes, I’ve been using the portable build for some time. Though I will not go as far to say it has ‘cornered’ the market, it is starting to become a benchmark in this app category. I’m currently giving CleanAfterMe and BleachPit a try, to see how each stacks up to CCleaner.