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Product OverviewThe shareware version (version 1.11s) is a shareware version. This version does not have all of the functionality of the full release version, however it does not time out or cripple the functionality. The available functions in the shareware version include deleting the internet cache, deleting typed URL's and deleting windows temp files. The other options are all available in the full retail version of the software including the AutoClean feature that works in the background, keeping your system clean and safe! CLICK HERE TO UPGRADE TO THE FULL RETAIL VERSION NOW! Startup The first time that you run Cover My Tracks, the application will prompt you telling you that it is the first time that it has ran and will show you both this help guide and the options screen. This is what the screens look like:  As you can see, the main application window is quite clean and simple - there are only 5 buttons. The two top ones are window control buttons, the button with the single line puts the application in the task tray while the X button closes the application. Note that the application starts up in the task tray to keep it from cluttering your desktop and taskbar. The other 3 buttons are fairly self-explanatory once you see the options screen. The Clean Operating System button will clean the operating system settings you select when you click it, and the Clean Internet Explorer button will clean your IE browser when you click on it.  The lower portion of this document outlines what each of the features in the options window do. The recommended minimum to clean is your Internet Cache, Typed URL's, and URL History. The two options to be VERY CAREFUL with is the Delete Favorites and Empty Recycle Bin. The delete favorites option will do just that - it will delete your favorites! This options is useful for those who do not use the "favorites" part of Internet Explorer. Also, be aware that the empty recycle bin setting will make the recycle bin useless as any files that are moved there are simply deleted. Both the Delete Favorites and Empty Recycle Bin options will prompt and warn you if you click them - please read the messages! The Misc Options include the ability to turn autoclean on and off for both the operating system and for Internet Explorer, as well as set the time value between automatic cleanings. The recommended time settings for autoclean is the maximum value of 60 seconds. This setting strikes a balance between ensuring that your history and cache files are effectively removed and overall system load. Also of note is the "Show status when manually cleaning" option; this option will show you what the application is doing in another window. It will also show you any server side messages if there are any to show. To see this status window, check off this option and then manually clean either the operating system or Internet Explorer. The first time that you run the application, especially if you have a large amount of cache files, it is recommmended to set the autoclean funtion on for both the operating system and Internet Explorer. Set your preferences and then minimize and let it do its thing. Your hard drive will have a lots of activity for possibly up to a minute (a few seconds is more likely on a newer machine) at which point subsequent cleanings will take only fractions of a second. Operating System SettingsWindows Temp Files The temp files that windows saves to your hard disk contains information about your activities such as what programs you were using and what you were doing. These files are intended to be temporary, but in many cases they are orphaned and NOT removed due to a variety of reasons. The information Windows Temp Files contains could be used against you; traces of your documents, streaming music, and multimedia can be found here - Cover My Tracks removes all of these. Recycle Bin Even though you can empty the Recycle Bin yourself, it is all to easy to forget to do this. Anything that you have deleted by default goes to the Recycle Bin. The special AutoClean feature allows you to have the software AUTOMATICALLY clean the Recycle Bin for you (as well as all the other settings)! No more wondering if someone is going to find out what you have been up to. Run History Run History is more of a privacy issue than a security issue, but its still nice to know that the dropdown box of the next user of your computer will not be snooping through what programs you ran manually. Recent Documents Open a document in Windows Explorer and your computer makes an entry in the Recent Documents list. Want to see what people have been looking at on your computer? Take a look! Click Start-Documents, Cover My Tracks can manually AND automatically remove this documents history so that other users CAN NOT see what you have looked at. Find Files When you search your hard disk for files, the operating system remembers every single name you search for and will try to make an automatic match as you type words. So as you type into the search box, names of other files that you have searched for will appear - Cover My Tracks can clear this. Find Computers This is similar to the find files; run history and recent documents history. Every time you type in a name to try and find a networked computer, its name is stored so that the next time you type something in that search box (as you type each letter), previous similar names are presented to you. Network History Any drives that you have mapped will show up in Internet Explorer. You can remove this history with the Network History setting. Telnet History If you use telnet, a history of your connections is kept so that people will know where you have been remotely connecting to. The Clear Telnet History setting will remove this. Internet Explorer SettingsCookies Many websites track visitors with cookies. As well, these cookies could contain sensitive personal information. If you wish to delete these, you can use the delete cookies option to get rid of them. Browser Cache The Internet Explorer browser cache contains the files of the websites that you have visited. This can include documents, pictures sounds, and videos. A single click of a button can get rid of this cache as well as the hidden index.dat file data. Typed URL's Each URL that you type in the address bar is stored so that as you type new ones, any previously typed URL's (that match what you have typed) are displayed. URL History Each URL that you visit, including hyperlinks (by clicking) are stored in IE. This is called your URL History, or simply, History. By selecting the AutoClean option and checking off clean URL History in Internet Explorer Options in the application, your browser history will be deleted as quickly as you create it. Forms Autocomplete When you type information into forms, it is stored for later use in the forms autocomplete function. This allows you to type parts of information in forms and Internet Explorer will fill out the rest if a "best guess" partial match is made. Checking the forms autocomplete checkbox in the Internet Explorer Options will clear this. Password Autocomplete To save you from needing to remember your passwords, Internet Explorer will remember and automatically fill out the passwords fields of sites you visit. Why you would want to "automatically" fill out a password is beyond me. Perhaps we should not use passwords? This setting removes this history. Delete Favorites This setting will delete your Internet Explorer favorites. The Delete Favorites setting is more of a 'paranoia' setting, but can also remove any entries that sites automatically add to here. Be careful with this setting: there is no prompting as to whether or not you want to actually delete them. Delete Favorites simply does a wholesale delete of the entire list. Misc SettingsAutoClean Operating System Selecting this option will automatically clean the selected operating system options that you selected - the slider bar will allow you to select how often this occurs. The recommended setting for the slider is 60 seconds. Note that the button for Clean Operating System on the main screen turns blue when it is auto-cleaning. AutoClean Internet Explorer Selecting this option will automatically clean the selected Internet Explorer options that you selected - the slider bar will allow you to select how often this occurs. The recommended setting for the slider is 60 seconds. Note that the button for Clean Internet Explorer on the main screen turns blue when it is auto-cleaning. Show status when manually cleaning This option opens a new window and shows you server side messages (if any), as well as a short log of what the application is doing and has done. TCP DETAILSFor users with strict firewall rules The Cover-My-Tracks application will contact http://www.cover-my.tracks.com/version.php on startup in order to pass version information. This application also passes major and minor versions like this: http://www.cover-my.tracks.com/version.php?mav=1&min=0.1. The response codes are for letting the user know about version upgrades, and if version is current or has any known problems (i.e. bugs). Privacy Notice: Cover-My-Tracks.com does not and will not share information about its users to third-parties - which maybe include: advertising companies, business partners, and government agencies. |
Release NotesReleased the 1.11s Shareware version (July 03, 2002) No problems were experienced in trial testing of the beta 1.10 version and thus I have moved this codebase to a release version 1.11 (and shareware 1.11s) with updated documentation. Just for reference for those who did alpha and beta testing, I have left the list of updates that were made from the previous versions. These updates are the same for both 1.10B and 1.11R.  Fixed the browser cache problems with Windows XP.
Added a new feature that allows the user to have
a real time text output of the cleaning process as well as allowing the user to see server messages (if any).
Added a new failsafe feature that can let the user know
if there are upgrades available. It will disable the application in the event that there are any serious problems
encountered with any version 1.10 or greater that could cause data loss. This failsafe feature greatly
enhances the security of the application.
Please e-mail bug reports to: programmer@cover-my-tracks.com |
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