Webroot Window Washer

During a standard run on our system, Window Washer cleaned out nearly 12,000 files and freed up over 75 MB of disk space. Of course, many of these files can be advantageous during browsing, such as cookie files that keep track of login information on your favorite Web sites. For example, my Netflix login info was wiped out by Window Washer the first time I used it. But the program also includes a neat little feature called Cookie Keeper that lets you peruse a list of cookies on your system and decide which ones to save. I logged back in to Netflix, then told Window Washer to keep their cookie. Subsequent washings skipped over the file.

Window Washer also offers a "bleaching" feature that will overwrite files up to 10 times to ensure that they can't be recovered via an undelete utility. In addition to cleaning standard programs like Netscape and Internet Explorer, you can download plug-ins for up to 150 other applications like RealPlayer and Juno, so Window Washer can clean these as well. We grabbed the Opera plug-in--only 80 KB in size--and it took just a few seconds to install it to be used in the next wash.

Best of all, Window Washer takes up less than 10 MB of space on your system. It's easy to use, it can be set to automatically wash your system periodically, and it's an inexpensive way to add peace of mind to your PC. --J. Curtis

Amazon.com Product Description
Protect your privacy, securely delete files, boost system performance, and much more with Window Washer. Permanently wipe away any history of PC and Internet activities. Remove useless files to regain disk space and speed up your system. And save selected cookies, allowing you to maintain preferred settings.

Window Washer cleans all traces of Internet and PC activity, including the cache, cookies, history, mail trash, drop-down address bar contents, auto complete forms, downloaded program files, Recycle Bin contents, Registry streams, Windows Temp folder files, and more. Easily assign files, folders, or Registry entries for cleaning. More than 150 custom wash item plugins come preconfigured to clean the tracks of various popular programs such as RealOne Player and Adobe Acrobat.

An automatic cleaning feature allows you to clean at intervals you specify or during shutdown or startup, and it works with the Windows task scheduler. Plus, a bleaching tool lets you completely overwrite files with random characters up to 10 times, rendering the file unrecoverable by undelete or unerase utilities. The bleach function overwrites files in FAT, FAT32, and NTFS, and will even overwrite slack space.

Don't be lazy & save $30.00


Good, but not what I was looking for   June 29, 2003
 13 out of 13 found this review helpful

I purchased this software solely for the bleaching. While this program can bleach files on your hard drive, it does nothing to bleach unused HD space. So, files deleted before this program was installed can still potentially be on your disk. Since the technology is there, I don't see why this feature can't be added.

Even though it is very handy software and I don't intend to return it, I feel I was fooled into buying it by their claim "Wash away all traces of your PC and Internet activity..."