windows 7 help required

[Nick Marshall]

got a windows 7 sony vaio laptop
just about to sell it to a mate.
but the thing has remembered all my passwords for ebay, ukgser etc.

is there a quick fix to loose this info, without a drastic nuke...

thanks for looking... nick

 

[Toad]

got a windows 7 sony vaio laptop
just about to sell it to a mate.
but the thing has remembered all my passwords for ebay, ukgser etc.

is there a quick fix to loose this info, without a drastic nuke...

thanks for looking... nick

Sounds like it's the browser that's remembering the passwords.

What browser are you using?

 

[franco]

This is done in your browser. Open your Internet browser and click on "Tools" located in the horizontal menu bar at the top of the browser window.

Scroll down to then click on "Internet Options" (or "Clear Recent History" for Mozilla Firefox).

Click on "Delete" located beneath the "Browsing History" heading. Another window will pop up on your computer screen with a list of different types of history you can delete.

Delete the "Passwords" history to erase saved passwords from email accounts.

Click "OK" (or "Close" for Mozilla Firefox) to exit the window.


Rob

 

[Nick Marshall]

sorted

This is done in your browser. Open your Internet browser and click on "Tools" located in the horizontal menu bar at the top of the browser window.

Scroll down to then click on "Internet Options" (or "Clear Recent History" for Mozilla Firefox).

Click on "Delete" located beneath the "Browsing History" heading. Another window will pop up on your computer screen with a list of different types of history you can delete.

Delete the "Passwords" history to erase saved passwords from email accounts.

Click "OK" (or "Close" for Mozilla Firefox) to exit the window.


Rob

found it in the options under the Tools heading.

Remember passwords for sites.

thanks for your help.

 

[Rasher]

I would not pass on a laptop without fully formatting the hard drive, it is very easy to recover deleted files - just type recover deleted files into google to see a whole host of applications that can do this.

At the very least run the install disc / rebuild partition software and do a fresh install of the OS, however with large modern drives there is a good chance many deleted files will still be recoverable.

A full format will make it very dificult for all but forensic experts to recover data, even then it is still possible.

Some sneaky beaky type agencies (both here and abroad) will accept the use of a disk wipe application that does 3-7 passes over the disk, but at hogh security levels the disks are even melted or thrown in a chipping machine.

IBM used to supply a DOD (Department Of Defense) accredited application with their laptops, but I would guess this would have only been for fairly low level restricted data and not to be used so they could sell Storming Normans old laptop on E-Bay.

Unless you really trust your mate and anyone he may pass the laptop to at a later date

 

[StumpyFingers]

I used to use Evidence eliminator, or System mechanics to securely delete by over righting the blank parts of the disc with 1's and 0's 5 or six times.

 

[Grey Beard]

I used to use Evidence eliminator, or System mechanics to securely delete by over righting the blank parts of the disc with 1's and 0's 5 or six times.

One of my wife's brothers used to be very high up in the defense industry in Germany, building cruise missiles and what not. He told me that a hard disk drive would have to overwritten with fresh data at least 40 times before recovery of data was no longer possible. That was a good 10 years ago and I don't know if recovery software has gottem more sophisticated in the meantime.

It's safer to mechanically destroy the disk. You could also as an alternative change your passwords prior to selling the PC.

Grey Beard

 

[Charlie George]

Have Look at CCleaner, its a freeware download programme, highly recommended by several of the computer magazines.

It is good piece of software that helps keep your machine clean of the crap that builds up on the discs.

It has a facility to wipe the disk, in several variables upto 35 times this would clean any private stuff, I'm not sure if you will have to reload the O/S but it would make it clean and secure.

If you search for ccleaner, you will find its gives you the option to buy it, ignore that and at the bottom it gives a link for the free download. The magazines recommend you get it from the Piroform direct.

 

[john1215]

This might help http://www.ehow.com/how_4890012_vaio-laptop-vgn-sgp-s.html.

Sony, like dell place a hidden partition on many of their computers and this allows a user to return the computer to the state it was in when purchased from new.

john

 

[DanielM]

Keeping the conspiracy threories going...

One of the big things that can be forensically analysed is the pagefile (large disk file used for virtual memory - normally 1.5x-2x size of memory - so a 2GB system may have 3-4GB pagefile created), this contains information on everything you run, and as it is memory written to disk, can contain anything. Its random, but can be used to identify information that may have been removed by other cleaning tools. Also, this file is never removed or deleted, and is open all the time, so cannot be wiped outside of the OS.

Windows has some policy settings to wipe the file on shutdown, but are rarely used by normal users.

I would trust my friends implicitly, however, I would still rebuild a scratch system if I were to dispose of a laptop/PC.