PrivaZer is a Windows cleaner from Goversoft that looks for traces of past activity on a computer and its storage. It then removes them so they cannot be recovered. Beyond browser data and temporary files, it targets file table entries, NTFS journal data and deleted file contents left in free space. The standard edition is free, and a PRO edition is available to people who make a contribution. Users can install it or run it as a portable program, including from a USB drive.
Finding traces before deleting them
A PrivaZer session starts with a scan of the system or of an attached storage device. Before removing anything, the program shows what it found as visual summaries. The user can review these and adjust the cleaning preferences. After cleanup, PrivaZer can scan again to show whether any sensitive traces remain.
The areas covered include:
- Web browsers, including cookies, DOM Storage, IndexedDB and AppCache data
- Usage histories for websites, videos, programs and opened documents, plus messenger history
- Recycle Bin, temporary files, logs and memory dumps
- Windows records such as Prefetch, Jump Lists, thumbnail caches, Shellbags, UserAssist and the DNS cache
- Pagefile.sys, Hiberfil.sys and RAM
- Free space, file tables (MFT or FAT), INDEX attributes in the MFT and the USN Journal
Built-in viewers display the contents of Index.dat, Pagefile.sys, Hiberfil.sys, Jump Lists and thumbnail caches, along with disk usage.
Overwriting instead of plain deletion
When Windows deletes a file, it marks the space as free but leaves the data where it was. PrivaZer overwrites that data instead. It first checks whether it is working on a magnetic hard disk or an SSD. It then picks an overwriting method to match. PrivaZer leaves personal documents alone. The aim is that recovery tools such as Recuva or TestDisk cannot restore the removed items, either whole or in part.
For Hiberfil.sys, PrivaZer checks whether the hibernation file has already been reset to zero. If it has not, PrivaZer fills it with zeros. PrivaZer can clean Pagefile.sys at every shutdown or only at the next one.
Cleaning free space
Free space cleaning works sector by sector across the whole drive. A pre-analysis finds every sector the file system marks as unused. PrivaZer then checks those sectors and overwrites the ones that still contain leftover data, resetting them to zero. PrivaZer touches only sectors already marked as unused, so it leaves files in use alone.
While this runs, PrivaZer shows live progress. It can also show examples of what it has just found, such as fragments of cached web pages or document text, before overwriting them. On SSDs, it reports whether TRIM is active. With TRIM, the drive itself may already have erased the freed blocks, so fewer traces remain than on a hard disk or on an SSD without TRIM. A low-priority mode keeps the job in the background, since a large drive takes a long time and the work wears mechanical disks.
File system records
On NTFS, entries in the MFT and the USN Journal can still record old file names and operations. PrivaZer clears entries that refer to files that no longer exist. The journal keeps running, so Windows still logs new activity.
Selective cleanup of Windows histories
Several PrivaZer cleanups remove history while keeping what makes Windows convenient.
- Cookies: the user picks which cookies to delete and can keep cookies for favorite sites so those logins stay active.
- Jump Lists: PrivaZer removes recent and frequent items and randomizes their timestamps. Pinned files and app-defined tasks such as “New Document” stay in place.
- Prefetch: separate options remove entries for programs that are no longer installed or have not run in six months. Alternatively, they clear only the run counts and last-run dates for programs still in use. Deleting the whole Prefetch folder is a separate option that the vendor advises against.
Basic users can set these through a guided quick setup in the Options menu. Advanced users make the same choices in the scan options.
Shredder and system settings
The shredder permanently deletes files or folders the user chooses, overwriting them so they cannot be recovered. PrivaZer also cleans the registry and can restore it afterwards. It can create a Windows restore point and shows how much space cleanup frees as it runs. Other settings cover execution priority, Windows indexing and hibernation, and scheduled cleanups that run without the user starting them.
PrivaZer PRO’s automatic and command-line cleaning
Both editions share the main features: in-depth cleanup, removal of unwanted traces, secure deletion and the free-space views. PrivaZer PRO adds:
- faster cleaning and stronger privacy protection
- one-click cleanup before shutting down the PC
- automatic cleanup of internet traces
- automatic updates for one year
- priority support
- command-line control
From the command line, PrivaZer PRO can securely delete given files or folders. It can also clean selected drives with settings loaded from an INI file. Optional switches close web browsers, clean internet traces and create a restore point. They can also shut down, restart or log off once the job finishes.
