Labs

Window Washer has been around a while, and its reputation is built on a combination of effective features, ease of use, and laundry jokes. The cleanup process is a 'wash', and applying secure deletion methods is 'adding bleach'.

The program's controls, which occupy a fixed-size window, can be switched between Basic and Advanced modes, so that you don't have to look at more options than you're comfortable with. The first button is Wash Now, which encourages you to get straight on with the job. Fortunately, clicking it doesn't immediately erase anything, but shows a preview of what will be affected if you continue. In any case, safeguards are included which check with you before erasing anything out of the ordinary, like system files or the contents of My Documents.

In Advanced mode, clicking Wash Items brings up a detailed list of items to be deleted. There are separate sections for Windows itself plus the various components of Microsoft Office, supported browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape and AOL), instant messengers, and a swathe of popular applications supported by plug-ins, among which the few notable exceptions include QuickTime Player and Windows Media Player. As usual, it's the lists of recently opened

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files in these applications that are the main focus of cleanup attention, since they can betray content that you've downloaded and viewed.

There's also a Cookie Wizard in which, unusually, you can either choose to accept all cookies from a certain site or only to allow specific cookies to be updated. It's hard to imagine you'd need to distinguish between multiple cookies from the same source, but it could happen.

Even the smallest amount of 'bleach' - single overwriting - thwarted our undelete utility, and you can also opt for a US Department of Defense-style three-pass method, seven passes, a user-defined number, or a full Gutmann treatment. As with the other programs, there's an option to overwrite the 'slack space' that's left empty after the ends of files, but you can't scrub free space on your disk, so there's a risk that remnants of older files could be left intact.

The Plug-in Wizard helps you cater for any programs not already supported, allowing you to specify files, folders, or - for the technically fluent - Windows Registry entries to be deleted. Although you can't prevent other users running the program, you can password-protect your settings, so all they can do is erase data you've set for removal.

Having set everything up to cope with your system, you can set 'washing' to happen on Windows shutdown or startup, or when you close your browser, although the latter option isn't available with Netscape. It can also be scheduled for various intervals. If you just want a scrub for peace of mind, it's not much of a chore to run the program and click Wash Now.

Window Washer lacks some of its rivals' clever touches, but it's admirably straightforward. It comes bundled with My Personal Favorites to keep your site list, user names and passwords out of sight as well.