Computer Info Please

[Traxster]

About 10-12 years ago when I first started using a computer I was informed that

whatever information I typed into the computer and whichever websites I visited

traces of same would always be imprinted somewhere on my hard drive

and would be available to anyone who had the knowledge to retrieve it.

My question is/are.........

Is this still the case ?

Will anybody who has the will and the wherefore be able to find /discover what I've been looking at ?

It's just that when my family comes to visit I don't want the Grandkids accidentally stumbling upon

some inappropriate sites I may have checked out ?.

And if so,how do I counter this ?

It seems to me that with all the progress that has been made re. IT in recent years,

someone somewhere must have come up with an 'app ?' to get around this problem,

and it is a problem especially if you have nosy,IT smart grandkids like mine.

Your input dear OPs is, as always ,muchly appreciated.

[Crossy]

Lets put this in the Technology forum.

In general, yes you do leave a trail, clearing your cache and browser history should be enough to stop someone accidentally stumbling upon inappropriate content

[Supernova]

Look here:

Clear Your Browser's Cache

[BB1950]

Well you didn't mention what kind of operating system you are using, so I am assuming you are using Windows.

I doubt your smart IT savvy grandkids would find out much about what you have been doing outside of your browsing history and having access to sensitive data files.

You can manually clean your browser history, caches, and cookies from within any browser. The exact operation varies with different browsers. Or you can download a nifty free program called CCleaner (crap cleaner) which will clean up all kinds of stuff such as histories, cookies, temp files, temp folders, caches, the trash bin, and etc... It works with many popular programs and browsers to clean up residual trash.

Placing sensitive data files in 'encrypted' folders will keep their eyes off data you want to keep. Another free program called TrueCrypt will help with this.

It would also be a good idea to assign your administrator level accounts with passwords and to activate the guest account for your grandkids to use. This will require you to log on and off each time you use your computer. Shutting down or restarting the computer does an automatic log off. They would be prevented from installing programs that could be potentially harmful for your computer, and from changing your personal settings.

But for IT professionals with special tools, there are traces left all over your computer which is required by the operating system to function. Such as the swap file, cookies, deleted file cluster segments, caches, backups, and etc... That's why criminologists always go for impounding hard drives in investigations.

People who want to protect themselves from this can run their operating system from within an encrypted volumes or drives. TrueCrypt or Bitlocker (available in Windows 7 Ultimate) can help with this.

Edited February 26, 2011 by BB1950

[Darrel]

No need to go to all that trouble.

All decent (or do I mean indecent? ) modern browsers have a "private" or 'anonymous" mode which you can find in the main toolbar. This automatically avoids leaving traces in your browsing history and cache, and also avoids cookies. Your ISP will still know where you go (unless you take further precautions), as would anyone prepared to examine the drive in depth (again, unless you take further precautions), but anyone glancing at your PC will not.

Read the Firefox description of this mode, and Internet Explorer is very similar.

[Traxster]

To all the many OPs who took the time to respond to my plea for help...

thankyou so much,

your replies have been most helpful.

Thanks again

Trax....