Clipboard

•When using Windows applications, any time you select a Copy command, the data is placed in the Windows Clipboard so that it may be accessed by any other applications. This option will clear the Clipboard memory contents so that another person does not accidentally paste something you have selected such as a text paragraph or picture.

Recycle Bin

•When you delete files Windows usually moves them to the Recycle Bin instead of deleting them directly from hard drive. These files can be retrieved using recovery methods. This option lets you clean out all of the files that are contained in the Recycle Bin. Note: This option will clean all the Recycle Bins on all drives of your computer (including any network drives you have mapped).

Temporary Files

•Windows temporary directory stores temporary files that are used during installation of programs and at other various times. This directory should not be confused with the Internet Explorer "Temporary Internet Files Directory". Privacy Eraser will delete the files in Windows temporary directory which are not in use.

Memory Dumps

•A memory dump, or system dump consists of the recorded state of the working memory of a computer program at a specific time, generally when the program has terminated abnormally (crashed). When Windows crashes, it stores small memory dumps on drive so that technical users can debug their systems. They can decode the details of the dump files in order to determine the failure point of the computer. This option lets you delete these memory dump files.

Windows Log Files

•Windows log files record many different kinds of events during system operation. These log files are powerful tools for us during troubleshooting. The system log and application log are especially useful because it gives us an overview of the system's environment. As a result, the dozens of log files are scattered across the system. This option lets you delete these log files.

Windows Error Reporting

•Whenever an application crashes (faulting application) you should get the message <application name> stopped working. The error reporting feature enables users to notify Microsoft of application faults, kernel faults, unresponsive applications, and other application specific problems.

•Microsoft can use the error reporting feature to provide customers with troubleshooting information, solutions, or updates for their specific problems. Developers can use this infrastructure to receive information that can be used to improve their applications. This option will clean all the error reports from your computer.

Check Disk File Fragments (*.CHK)

•The ScanDisk and CHKDISK checking applications are run by the Windows operating system to find errors that may be located on the hard drive. These errors are then written out as CHK files. Often these can be deleted as the information is elsewhere on your hard drive. This option will delete these files from your computer.

DNS Cache

•The Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) involves caching on both Internet DNS servers and on the client computers that contact DNS servers. A DNS cache contains entries that translate Internet domain names to IP addresses. When you visit a website, Windows attempts to speed up future visits to that site by writing its DNS information to the DNS cache. This option will clear out the cache so that Windows can start storing DNS information from scratch.

Font Cache

•If you find yourself experiencing weirdness with font menus, font display or printing, you may try to clear font cache to resolve your issue. This option lets you delete corrupted font cache files, Windows will automatically generate new ones when it needs them. 

Invalid Start Menu Shortcuts

•This option will delete invalid shortcuts from your Start menu (they point to files that no longer exist).

Invalid Desktop Shortcuts

•This option will delete invalid shortcuts from your desktop (they point to files that no longer exist).

Windows Event Logs

•Windows events logs are typically used for troubleshooting application and driver software. This option will clear all Windows event logs from Event Viewer.

Windows Prefetch Files

•In Windows a Prefetch file is generated each time an application is run, this helps Windows optimize the application the next time it is executed. Deleting prefetch files reduces performance, applications and Windows will load slower. It is not recommended to delete files from the Windows Prefetch folder, Windows automatically cleans unused prefetch files.Of course, there is a small privacy issue here as the names of all the applications you've launched recently are easily visible to anyone who can browse the \Windows\Prefetch folder. This option lets you delete these prefetch files immediately. This process is very safe and Windows will recreate the files as necessary.

Windows Paging File

•Windows paging file (pagefile.sys) is used by Windows to increase your available memory, it manages your computer's virtual memory. If this file is not present then Windows will recreate the file when user login on system. Normally its of double the size of RAM and present in root directory of system drive, but user can change drive according the size required.

•While Windows is running the pagefile is locked for exclusive access by the System process to prevent outside interference. It cannot be read or written to by any application. If you did find some way to clear the pagefle while Windows was running this would almost certainly cause a system crash. The only way to clear the pagefile is to set a specific registry entry, then paging file will be cleared (overwriting all bytes by zeros) during shutdown process by Windows self.

To clear the Windows Paging File at Shutdown:

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).

2. Change the data value of the ClearPageFileAtShutdown value in the following registry key to a value of 1:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

If the value does not exist, add the following value:

Value Name: ClearPageFileAtShutdown

Value Type: REG_DWORD

Value: 1

This change does not take effect until you restart the computer. Note: If you enable this feature, the shutdown time may be increased. 

Menu Order Cache

•When you drag and drop items on the Start menu or Favorites into different locations, Windows stores this information in the Menu Order Cache. This option will reset your Start Menu & Favorites, any custom ordering will be lost, although nothing will actually be removed.

Tray Notifications Cache

•This cache stores information about any items that have ever appeared in your system tray, and whether or not you have set them to Hide, Hide When Inactive, or Always Show. This option will reset system tray cache, you need to manually restart the explorer.exe process from Task Manager for the change to take effect.

Window Size & Location Cache

•When you open and close Windows Explorer, Windows records folder settings for window position, sort order, columns, folder type, toolbar toggles, and search result views. This option will reset all saved Windows size, location and view settings.

User Assist History

•User Assist History is a built-in monitoring feature of Windows that records a list of programs executed on your computer, complete with running count and last execution date and time. If you don't clear User Assist data, others could see which applications you use most often.

Invalid Environment Path

•This option will delete invalid environment path variables from your Windows system (they point to paths that no longer exist).

IIS Log Files

•Internet Information Services (IIS) is a web server developed by Microsoft for use with Windows Server. To help with server use and analysis, IIS is integrated with several types of log files. These log file formats provide information on a range of websites and specific statistics, including Internet Protocol (IP) addresses user information and site visits as well as dates, times and queries.