How to Clean Personal Information off a Computer

Hitting the "delete" button on a PC does not magically make the junk file disappear completely. The erased program must be overwritten repeatedly by several more novel installations to avoid chances of recovery by professional hackers. Aside from furiously driving a sledgehammer through the hard drive, safer steps may be taken to really clean it of financial and other personal information. Knowing how to do so will protect many computer users from the damages caused by identity theft.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Hard drive
• CCleaner
• Cyberscrub software

1. Delete all temporary files, cookies and other traces of browsing activity from the browser’s memory. Simply click on"tools" in the menu bar and choose "Delete browsing history..." Then close "Internet Explorer."

2. Run anti-virus and security programs to remove viruses, spyware and malware footprints. Each sanitizing application immediately alerts computer users of suspicious activity and provides them with options to disable harmful agents. However, manually pressing on "scan" once a month will completely remove overlooked malicious software and keep the computer running smoothly.

3. Uninstall junk programs through the control panel by choosing the "add/remove" feature. Restart the computer when prompted to finish erasing remaining files.

4. Utilize CCleaner to further clean up removed files. Do so by choosing "registry" and picking the "scan for issues" option. This procedure also fixes broken file keys.

5. Execute the Cyberscrub Privacy software by selecting "stop hardware recovery (DoD)" to overwrite deleted applications. The process will make the old programs untraceable as it securely stops the most powerful recovery tools.

Tips & Warnings

• File hard copy records of personal information in folders.
• Extremely confidential data should be memorized, not written.
• Perform the overwriting process with caution as erased programs cannot be recovered.

Resources

• Bankrate