Access advanced scanning options, manage cookie removal and delete any folder or file permanently
Access even more scanning options
PrivaZer is a system-cleaning tool that has much in common with our favourite junk-removal software CCleaner. PrivaZer’s Advanced mode offers extra scanning options to give you more control over each scan. To see these, Click ‘Basic user’ at the top right in the main menu (it will change to ‘Advanced user’), then click ‘Scan in-depth’ in the dropdown menu, select Computer and click OK. Every type of scan offered by PrivaZer will be listed on the left.
As an example we’ll use ‘Copy, burning’, which removes the temporary files generated when you burn CDs. To see (and change) which programs are scanned by this option, click ‘Copy, burning’ to highlight it then click Options. You’ll see a list of various CD-burning programs and those installed on your PC will be marked by a tick box. Untick any box to stop PrivaZer scanning that particular program. This can be useful if you use a program regularly and want to make sure that PrivaZer doesn’t interfere with the way it’s set up by removing any temporary files associated with it.
Choose which website cookies to keep
One of the ways PrivaZer tries to keep your PC running smoothly is by removing cookies that websites leave behind on your PC. While it’s certainly worth keeping cookies to a minimum, it’s actually a good idea to keep those from your favourite websites so they can load faster.
To determine which cookies PrivaZer leaves on your PC during a scan select ‘Scan in-depth’ on PrivaZer’s main screen, then highlight Computer and click OK. On the next screen, click ‘To keep’ (next to the Cookies tick box). Then choose Manual from the ‘Cookies selection’ dropdown menu. You’ll now be able to move cookies from the ‘To keep’ column to the ‘To delete’ column and vice versa.
As a rule of thumb you should move cookies from the websites you visit the most to the ‘To keep’ section and move the rest to ‘To delete’. Once you’re happy with your selections, click Update (below the ‘Cookies selection’ dropdown menu), then click the Back button twice. All subsequent PrivaZer scans will leave the cookies you have chosen to keep.
Remove the PrivaZer option from the right-click menu
Try right-clicking your Recycle Bin, for example, and you’ll see a PrivaZer logo next to a command to ‘Empty without a trace’. This is because PrivaZer embeds itself into your Windows’ right-click (context) menu. But if, like us, your right-click menu is already packed, you can turn this option off (and then back on if you choose).
To do this, in the main screen click ‘Advanced options’ (at the top left) and then the General tab. You’ll see four tick boxes under the ‘Installation of contextual menus (right-click menu)’ section. To remove the right-click options, untick each box and click OK. You can restore any removed options by ticking these boxes whenever you want.
Delete files and folders permanently
PrivaZer can permanently delete files and folders on your PC so that they are irretrievable. This can provide peace of mind when you delete files containing personal information, such as banking transactions.
To access this tool, select ‘Delete without a trace’ in the dropdown menu in the main menu, then click ‘Sensitive files’ and click OK. Highlight the folders or files you want to delete and click Open. A pop-up window will appear. Click ‘See advanced options’ and choose any of the ‘3 passes’ options in the dropdown menu (‘3 passes’ means the files will be deleted and the resulting free space filled and overwritten three times to ensure that data recovery is impossible). Click Start and you’ll see a green progress bar that will let you know when the process has completed. Click ‘See’ for a report detailing all the files that were removed, and any that were missed.