-Review:Window Washer V2.0

Telecomworldwire, Jan 8, 1999

TELECOMWORLDWIRE--(C) 1994-9 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD PRODUCT:WINDOW WASHER V2.0 PLATFORM:PC/WINDOWS SUPPLIER:WEBROOT SOFTWARE PRICE:US$29.95 NOTES: ALSO INCLUDES (BY THE SAME COMPANY) CACHE & COOKIE WASHER (INTERNET EXPLORER) AND CACHE & COOKIE WASHER (NETSCAPE) PRICED US$14.95 EACH. The main purpose of Window Washer is to clean up all those bits of Microsoft Windows that contain junk files and other bits of one-time information that you may not want to have lurking around your hard disk.

Whether it is a temporary file, a bit of Internet cache, files consigned to the recycle bin or fragments of hard disk data (.CHK) files this program will clean them up, on demand, when you want it to. It can even do it every time you logoff and closedown if you wish - making it ideal for some commercial environments. Some people don't realise that every picture viewed online, every page visited, link clicked or downloaded is being recorded somewhere 'hidden' on your computer. Of course, hidden in the programs are tools to 'delete' some of these, but they are never automatic! This is where Windows Washer comes in with its built-in Cache & Cookie Cleaner for Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer (these two latter programs are also separately available for half of the price). Installing the program is easy and you don't even need to look at the manual. You can configure what is kept and what is deleted as well - so if you don't want to "empty" the trash can you don't need to. If you want to make sure that the files have gone you can also use an option that makes them completely unrecoverable. You can even state that certain directories or files be deleted every so often -making it ideal as a temporary download space for example - download and forget as the program could delete everything in c:\userdownloads\ every three days if required. For Internet users cookies can be both a pain and a godsend - with the Internet tools you can specify which cookies should be saved - and say goodbye to the rest. All of these wasted bytes mount up. The reviewer saved 13Mb and he knows the usual places to 'go a-deleting'. One of the major selling points in the company's view is its usefulness to network administrators of public systems as it can be configured to automatically clean the tracks of previous users on a system - a great space saver as well as automatically protecting users' privacy from other users of that system. The reviewer tried both the Cache & Cookie Washer and the Windows Washer programs and found them both to do the job ideally. The key is to start 'small' and add a further option. CONCLUSION: I like this package- while you can manually opt to do the cleaning yourself without this program you save a lot of time (and money) by using it. If you like some privacy and a less cluttered disk this is for you. And what's more, you get a free 30-day trial before you have to part with your money as well. A recommendable trial. Review by Darren Ingram.