[v6, v5] Erasing Browser Cache and Email

E

eraserinfo

New Member
Hi,
Can someone explain to me how to use Eraser with Firefox an IE to erase Cache, history.dat, cookies.txt? I can't access any of this from Eraser interface as explained in help info. For Firefox there's no cache in profile, it won't show history or cookies. And Microsoft Internet Explorer is even more confusing. I can't find history, cookies or cache. I want to set it up so I can erase all this with DoD 5220-22.M. Please help.
Jessica
 
Re: Erasing Browser Cache and Email

Hello,

There are two ways of doing this: the first will be to use Eraser, manually adding every path for erasure (which is a little bit more tedious but since it is a dedicated secure erasure program you gain a little more security) and the second will be to use CCleaner. I'll only go through the list of paths to erase with for Eraser (this list is compiled from a forum search)

Firefox
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\Cache
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\OfflineCache
  • %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\cookies.sqlite
  • %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\downloads.sqlite
  • %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\formhistory.sqlite (This will delete your saved passwords!)
  • %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\places.sqlite
  • %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\*.sqlite-journal
Delete the above files only when Firefox is closed otherwise weird behaviour (in Firefox) will result. Your profile name refers to the [8-character string][.default] folder in the Profiles folder that you use. There should only be one (if there are multiple, umm, post back and I'll see how I can help)

For Internet Explorer
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\History
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
  • %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\UserData\index.dat
  • %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies

Hope that helps.
Joel

P/s tagging this as FAQ since it is probably useful for people.
 
Re: Erasing Browser Cache and Email

Joel said:
Hello,

There are two ways of doing this: the first will be to use Eraser, manually adding every path for erasure (which is a little bit more tedious but since it is a dedicated secure erasure program you gain a little more security) and the second will be to use CCleaner. I'll only go through the list of paths to erase with for Eraser (this list is compiled from a forum search)

Firefox
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\Cache
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\OfflineCache
  • %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\cookies.sqlite
  • %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\downloads.sqlite
  • %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\formhistory.sqlite (This will delete your saved passwords!)
  • %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\places.sqlite
  • %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\*.sqlite-journal
Delete the above files only when Firefox is closed otherwise weird behaviour (in Firefox) will result. Your profile name refers to the [8-character string][.default] folder in the Profiles folder that you use. There should only be one (if there are multiple, umm, post back and I'll see how I can help)

For Internet Explorer
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\History
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
  • %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\UserData\index.dat
  • %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies

Hope that helps.
Joel

P/s tagging this as FAQ since it is probably useful for people.
Click to expand...

Hi Joel,
Thank you for your response. These paths are helpful. I hope you don't mind this question, but I'm not exactly sure how to input these paths into the Eraser interface. I clicked on File & New Task, then checked the radio button for File and pasted the link with the correct profile name. I had to check use wildcards not sure what that is, but it open the file so I could enter the paths, but it couldn't find the file. Can you explain to me how to manually add these paths for eraser?
Thanks,
Jessica
 
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\Cache
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\OfflineCache
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\History
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
  • %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies

Are folders and should be used with the Files in Folder radio button; the rest of the paths are files. To find the files you could just click on the button marked "..." and paste the correct file path there and click open.

Joel
 
Joel said:
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\Cache
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Your profile name>\OfflineCache
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\History
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
  • %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies

Are folders and should be used with the Files in Folder radio button; the rest of the paths are files. To find the files you could just click on the button marked "..." and paste the correct file path there and click open.

Joel
Click to expand...

Hi Joel,
Thanks for clarifying the location of these paths. The problem is when I click the radio button for files and folders it won’t let me enter or paste the path even when I click on subfolders. And when I click the radio button for files it won’t let me enter a path until I check use wildcards, even then it can't locate the file. I can’t find these files even when I access them in Local Disk [C:].
Thanks,
Jessica
 
Oops, I misinterpreted your question, sorry.

For the files it's relatively easy: click on the "..." button beside the text field and enter the path to the file. Click open and the path will appear in the text box without using the Wildcards checkbox. For the directories it'll be a little more complex: you may have to enable viewing of hidden files a folders (in Vista: Go to documents, click on organize on the toolbar above, just below the location bar, then folder and search options. Click on the View tab and then the Show hidden files and folders radio button. Click OK.) After doing that, click on the "..." button under Files in Folder and follow the directory tree to the path.

Joel.
 
Joel said:
Oops, I misinterpreted your question, sorry.

For the files it's relatively easy: click on the "..." button beside the text field and enter the path to the file. Click open and the path will appear in the text box without using the Wildcards checkbox. For the directories it'll be a little more complex: you may have to enable viewing of hidden files a folders (in Vista: Go to documents, click on organize on the toolbar above, just below the location bar, then folder and search options. Click on the View tab and then the Show hidden files and folders radio button. Click OK.) After doing that, click on the "..." button under Files in Folder and follow the directory tree to the path.

Joel.
Click to expand...

Not a problem. I had already right clicked on start – explore – tools and folder options…show hidden files and folders radio button. When I click on “…” button a box opens up and says choose file and folders. In the box it says my computer and my network places. I double click on my computer and local disk c, d and e open up. I click on disk c, program files and locate Mozilla Firefox – default – profile, but no path to this file. It’s just not there. I activated show hidden files and folders. And it won’t allow me to paste the link in the open window.
Thanks,
Jessica
 
I assume you managed to find the paths to the files? Oh, when using directories the %LOCALAPPDATA% and %APPDATA% refer to environment variables. So go to your Computer folder and key in %LOCALAPPDATA% into the address bar and hit enter. That is the value you have to substitute %LOCALAPDATA% with. Do the same for %APPDATA%.

Using these two values, substitute these values into the paths above and look for those paths instead.

Joel
 
Joel said:
I assume you managed to find the paths to the files? Oh, when using directories the %LOCALAPPDATA% and %APPDATA% refer to environment variables. So go to your Computer folder and key in %LOCALAPPDATA% into the address bar and hit enter. That is the value you have to substitute %LOCALAPDATA% with. Do the same for %APPDATA%.

Using these two values, substitute these values into the paths above and look for those paths instead.

Joel
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help.
Jessica
 
That's what v6 is for - the following versions will have this functionality provided as plugins for programmers to include their plugins.

Joel
 
Joel said:
That's what v6 is for - the following versions will have this functionality provided as plugins for programmers to include their plugins.

Joel
Click to expand...

I can really appreciate what you’re trying to offer here in the way of free privacy software. You’re doing a great job. Thanks for taking the time to develop this software and offering it free to the public. That says a lot about the developer. Keep up the good work. And thanks for your help Joel.
Jessica
 
Dear Joel
Jessica wrote
I can really appreciate what you’re trying to offer here in the way of free privacy software. You’re doing a great job. Thanks for taking the time to develop this software and offering it free to the public. That says a lot about the developer. Keep up the good work. And thanks for your help Joel.

New in this forum I can only join her appreciaton.
Very importent to read all before using superprograms.
Maybe back very soon with my questions.
regards
Henry
 
I took your suggestion and installed CC Cleaner on my system. If my main concern is erasing internet surfing history, do I still need to run Eraser software to overwrite the entire hard drive?
Thanks
 
You may like to do that once in a while, but otherwise CCleaner should be doing okay (I don't know -- I've got no hard facts about the ability of CCleaner, and your threat model is probably different from the rest of us -- no two people's threat model is identical.)

Joel
 
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