Lists of open files and connected via USB devices, browser history, DNS cache - all this helps to find out what the user was doing. We have compiled step by step instructions how to remove traces of your activities in different Windows versions, Office and popular browsers. At the end of the article you will find several scripts that will help you automatically keep your machine clean.
1. Clear lists of recent places and programs
Let's start cleaning with lists of recent places and programs. The list of recent (in Windows 10 - frequently used) programs is in the main menu, and the list of recent places is in Explorer.
How to turn off this disgrace? In Windows 7 - click right click mouse on the “Start” button, select “Properties” and in the window that appears, uncheck both checkboxes in the “Privacy” section.
To clear the list of recent places and documents, you need to delete the contents of the %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent directory. To do this, open command line and run two commands:
Cd %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent echo y | del *.*
It also wouldn't hurt to delete the contents of the %appdata%\microsoft\windows\recent\automaticdestinations\ directory. It stores the latest files that appear in the jump list:
Cd %appdata%\microsoft\windows\recent\automaticdestinations\ echo y | del *.*
To ensure that recent files are cleared automatically when you exit, you must enable the "Clear the history of recently opened documents on exit" policy, which is located in the "User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar" section.
Now let's move on to Windows 10. You can disable the list of recently added and frequently used applications through the Settings window. Open it and go to the “Personalization” section, “Start”. Turn off everything that is there.
It seems that the problem has been solved, but this, alas, is not entirely true. If you enable these parameters again, then all lists with the same composition will appear again. Therefore, you will have to disable this feature through Group Policy. Open gpedit.msc and go to User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar. Enable the following policies:
- “Clearing the list of recently used programs for new users”;
- “Clear history of recently opened documents on exit”;
- “Clear notification log on tile when exiting”;
- “Remove the list of programs pinned to the Start menu.”
Clearing recent places in Windows 10 is easier than in Windows 7. Open File Explorer, go to the View tab and click the Options button. In the window that appears, disable the “Show recently used files in the Quick Access Toolbar” and “Show frequently used folders in the Quick Access Toolbar” options. Don't forget to click the "Clear" button.
As you can see, such a simple task as cleaning up the last objects has a rather complicated solution. No editing group policies- nowhere.
2. Clear the list of USB drives
At some sensitive facilities, only flash drives registered in the log are allowed to be connected to the computer. Moreover, as usual, the magazine is the most ordinary one - paper. That is, the computer itself does not in any way restrict the connection of unregistered drives. It doesn’t limit, but it records! And if during the check it is discovered that the user connected unregistered drives, he will have problems.
We under no circumstances advise you to try to steal military secrets, but the ability to clear the list of recently connected drives can be useful in other life situations. To do this, look at the following registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USBSTOR\ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB\
Here they are - all the drives that you connected to your computer.
It would seem that you just need to take it and clean everything. But it was not there! Firstly, the permissions for these registry branches are set in such a way that you cannot delete anything even in “seven”, not to mention “ten”.
Secondly, assigning rights and permissions manually takes a long time, especially if there are many drives. Thirdly, administrator rights will not help. The screenshot above was created when I performed the delete operation with admin rights. Fourthly, in addition to these two sections, you need to clean a long list of sections. Moreover, they need not just to be deleted, but to be edited correctly.
If for some reason you need to do everything manually, then look for keywords MountPoints, MountedDevices DeviceClasses and RemovableMedia. But it’s much easier to use a ready-made program that will do everything for you. Some forums recommend USBDeview for this. However, I tested it and declare that it does not clear information from all the necessary sections. USBSTOR And USB continue to contain information about connected media.
I can recommend the program. Run it, check the “Perform real cleaning” checkbox. You can turn on the “Save .reg cancel file” option or not, but if the goal is not to test the program, but to prepare for an upcoming computer inspection, then it’s better to turn it off.
The program not only cleans the registry, but also displays a detailed log of its actions (see below). When it finishes, there will be no mention of connecting drives to the computer.
3. Clear cache and browser history
The third point in our tutu is clearing the cache and browser history. There are no difficulties here - each browser allows you to reset the list of recently visited sites.
Continuation is available only to members
Option 1. Join the “site” community to read all materials on the site
Membership in the community within the specified period will give you access to ALL Hacker materials, increase your personal cumulative discount and allow you to accumulate a professional Xakep Score rating!
Apple called iOS 8 the most advanced operating system for mobile devices. It is equipped with applications and new functions: some of them were really expected, and some of them are glad to be abandoned. For example, from the list recent contacts V open access on the application switching screen. How can we prevent iOS 8 improvements from making life more difficult?
Removing recent contacts from the application switching screen
- Press the Home button twice and the application switching screen will appear. Make sure there are recent contacts at the top of the screen;
- Go to the “Settings” menu - “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” and select “Show in App Switcher”;
- The contact management menu will appear on the screen: choose to display only your favorite contacts or disable both options;
- Final check. We exit Settings, double-click the “Home” button to return to the application switching screen and make sure that compromising information is hidden from prying eyes.
To resume displaying contacts, just go to the “Settings” menu – “Mail, addresses, calendars” – “Display in program switching” and change the status to “on”.
In Windows 10, when a user launches Windows Explorer, the Quick Access Toolbar (or Quick Access) window opens by default, containing a list of latest files and frequently used folders. If this new feature is bothering you, here is a guide to help you disable Frequent Folders and Recent Files in the Quick Access Toolbar.
Open a File Explorer window and go to the View tab. Click on the "Options" button, and then select "Change folder and search options."
This will take you to the settings window for all Windows Explorer folders. At the bottom of the window (under the General tab), you'll see a Privacy section that contains two options. One of them is responsible for showing recently used files in the Quick Access Toolbar, and the second is for displaying the folders that you access most often. You can disable both of them or just one of them. Here you can clear the entire history if you need Windows 10 to start tracking files and folders from scratch.
After turning both options off, only pinned folders will remain in the Quick Access Toolbar.
If you want to operating system continues to offer you quick access to frequently used files and folders, but at the same time you do not want Quick Access to display specific folders or files, you can remove them from there manually. To do this, right-click on the folder/file and in context menu select "Remove from Quick access".
The selected item will no longer appear in the Quick Access Toolbar, no matter how often you use that file or folder.
Have a great day!
It happens that they climbed through someone else’s computer in search of incriminating evidence on a good person, and found nothing. And now in the history of recent files you can see what and when you opened. You should be ashamed... In order not to lose your honor and not lose trust, in these instructions we will look at how to clear the recent documents folder using Windows 7 as an example.
Of course, you should never hack into other people’s computers. But the knowledge from this article should be in everyone’s head, because not knowing it is as shameful as delving into other people’s files.
Clear recent documents Windows 7
In fact, everything is very simple. So simple that I even thought about whether it was worth writing an article about it. But I decided to write anyway.
During the following steps, you may see UAC security messages. You have to agree with everyone. In general, I would recommend.
So, first, let's figure out where Window 7 stores recent documents. To do this you need to enable . Then go to the following address: C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent (or C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent Documents).
If your operating system is on a different drive than C, then you need to look on the drive where it is.
From this Recent Documents folder, you can delete all or selected recently opened Windows files 7. Moreover, you need to delete it from the trash later too.
Clear recent Windows documents 7 can be done in another way. Click Start. Select “Recent Documents” there, right-click on this folder and select “Clear list of recent documents”. After that, also delete the files from the trash.
The second method to clear recent documents in Windows 7 is simpler than the first, but the first is given if the second does not work.
Turn off recent documents Windows 7
If necessary, you can disable recent files in Windows 7. This is also done very simply.
Right-click on the taskbar and select “Properties”.
Then go to the “Start Menu” tab and uncheck the box next to “Store and display a list of recently opened items in the Start menu and on the taskbar.”
Then click the “Configure” button in the same window. In the window that opens, look for the line “Recent documents” and uncheck it too. Click “Ok” here and “Ok” again in the previous window.
All. If you click “Start”, there will be no item with recent documents there. Files opened before you disabled this feature will also be deleted. Windows 7's most recently opened documents are disabled and not saved.