R-Wipe & Clean
Description
R-Wipe & Clean is a Windows and macOS tool from R-Tools Technology that erases traces of computer activity and securely deletes files so that they cannot be recovered. It covers two related jobs: cleaning the records that operating systems, browsers and applications leave behind during normal use, and wiping files and free disk space so that deleted data cannot be retrieved by data recovery software.
The cleaning side of the program deletes browser history, cookies, cached web pages, typed web addresses, saved passwords, download lists, recently opened document lists, Windows MRU (Most Recently Used) entries, temporary files, and so on, left behind by the operating system and hundreds of third-party applications. The wiping side permanently destroys the content of files and folders the user wants to get rid of, and can also write over the free space on a drive to destroy traces of files deleted in the past through normal Windows or macOS deletion.
WHY STANDARD DELETION IS NOT Enough
When a user deletes a file using Windows Explorer or the Recycle Bin, the operating system marks the disk space that the file occupied as available but does not erase the actual data. The file content remains on the drive until the operating system happens to write new data over that space. Data recovery software can locate and recover these files days, weeks or months after they were deleted, provided the space hasn’t been overwritten.
Similarly, browsers and applications leave behind logs, caches, and history files that remain on the drive even if a user manually clears them using an application’s built-in settings. Some of these traces are located in places that the standard clearing tools do not reach. R-Wipe & Clean addresses the obvious and less visible places where activity records are accumulating.
WIPING ALGORITHMS
R-Wipe & Clean has five file and free space wiping data overwriting algorithms. Each algorithm overwrites the deleted data a set number of times with different patterns, making the original data increasingly difficult to recover by forensic means.
Zeroes overwrites the data once with all zeros. This is the quickest method and foils all software-based recovery tools, but does not hide the fact that wiping has taken place, and sophisticated lab techniques may theoretically recover traces from magnetic platters. Pseudo-random numbers overwrites data once with random values, which also defeats software recovery tools and has the additional effect of making it harder to detect that the space was intentionally wiped. DoD 5220.22-M (3-pass) is the three-pass U.S. Department of Defense standard, which makes data much more difficult to recover using forensic methods. DoD 5200.28-STD (7-pass) uses a seven-pass U.S. DoD standard for much stronger protection at the expense of much more time. Peter Gutmann (35-pass) 35 overwrite passes with a specific pattern sequence developed by security researcher Peter Gutmann. This is the most thorough option and the slowest, it renders data effectively unrecoverable by any currently known technique but takes a substantial amount of time to complete on large drives or large numbers of files.
R-Tools notes that file wiping is effective for traditional magnetic hard drives. SSDs (solid state drives) operate differently on a hardware level, and overwriting certain files or sectors doesn’t ensure the same level of erasure. R-Wipe & Clean disables file and free space wiping on SSDs by default because the underlying storage controller on an SSD controls where data is physically written, outside of the software’s control.
BROWSER AND Internet Trace Cleaning
R-Wipe & Clean supports most browsers that are currently used, such as Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, Safari, Brave, Vivaldi, Waterfox, etc. For each browser it can clean browsing history, cookies, cached files, saved form data, saved passwords, download history and typed URLs. Some browsers have selective cleaning — for example, keeping some cookies while removing others.
Beyond browsers, the program cleans traces from email clients, messaging applications, file-sharing programs and media players. R-Tools claims that the current version supports traces from more than 300 third-party applications. For applications not covered by the program by default, users can create custom cleaning rules specifying which files, folders or Registry keys to delete.
WINDOWS TRACE CLEANing – System Trace Cleaning
On the Windows side, R-Wipe & Clean targets system-generated records such as the Windows Prefetch folder (files Windows creates to speed up application launching, which also reveal which programs were run and when), the list of recently opened documents in the Start menu, Windows Explorer’s thumbnail cache, the Windows Registry’s MRU (Most Recently Used) lists for opened files and programs, temporary system files, error logs, Windows swap file remnants and the Recycle Bin.
The program also clears records of small files stored directly inside the NTFS Master File Table (MFT). On NTFS drives, files below a certain size have their actual content stored inside the MFT itself rather than in separate disk clusters. Standard deletion and free space wiping do not reach these MFT-resident records; R-Wipe & Clean specifically addresses them.
Wiping NTFS alternate data streams is another Windows specific feature. NTFS supports files with hidden secondary streams of data attached to them. These streams can store metadata, download source information (the “Zone.Identifier” tag that marks files downloaded from the internet) or application-specific data. R-Wipe & Clean wipes these in conjunction with the main file content.
Cluster tips — the unused parts at the end of the last cluster allocated to a file — can also contain fragments of previously stored data. These slack spaces can be wiped by R-Wipe & Clean.
FILE AND FOLDER WIPING
Users can wipe specific files and folders directly through R-Wipe & Clean’s interface, or they can right-click on the files and folders in Windows File Explorer and choose the wipe option from the context menu. The content of the file is overwritten with the selected algorithm before the file entry is deleted from the directory, so there is no recoverable content at the storage level.
Wipe lists allow users to create custom collections of files, folders, and Registry keys to wipe simultaneously in one operation. A user can store multiple wipe lists for different purposes — one list for work files, another for personal data — and run each list as needed without having to select items individually each time.
FREE DISK SPACE WIPING
Free space wiping tells R-Wipe & Clean to overwrite all the unallocated space on a drive — the areas not currently occupied by any file. This process deals with files deleted in the past by normal deletion, which left the content of the file on the disk without erasing it. After free space wiping, data recovery software cannot recover previously deleted files from that drive.
Users can wipe free space on a single drive directly from its right-click menu in Windows Explorer, or set up a task to wipe free space on multiple drives at once.
TASKS AND SCHEDULER
Individual cleaning and wiping actions can be combined into larger tasks. A single task can contain free space wiping, browser trace cleaning, application trace cleaning and one or more wipe lists, all running in sequence. Tasks can be launched immediately from the interface or can be scheduled to run automatically based on time (at a specific time of day, on a schedule) or system events such as user login, user logout, system startup, system shutdown, or when all browser windows close.
Scheduled tasks are executed as background processes and can be set up to execute without any user interface, so the cleaning is not visible during normal use. The program supports password protection to avoid unauthorized changes to its settings or task configurations.
TOUCH INTERFACE
R-Wipe & Clean has a touch optimized interface in addition to the standard desktop interface. The touch interface has bigger controls, swipe gestures, and tap navigation that are appropriate for tablets and laptops with touch screens. Both interfaces have access to the same features.
FILE EXPLORER INTEGRATION
R-Wipe & Clean adds entries to the Windows File Explorer right click context menu. Users can wipe a file, folder, or the free space on a drive directly from Explorer without opening the main program window. Files and folders can also be added to an existing wipe list from the right-click menu.
MAC VERSION
R-Tools Technology has a separate R-Wipe & Clean version for macOS. The Mac version includes browser traces, system logs, application caches, etc. File erasure uses the same algorithm options as in the Windows version. Files can be deleted directly from Finder using the context menu. The Mac version has a 30-day free trial with the same terms as the Windows version.
PRICING AND LICENSING
R-Wipe & Clean is a paid program with a one-time purchase price — no recurring subscription is required. A fully functional 30-day trial is available for download from the R-Tools website. After the trial period, the program is converted to R-Wipe & Clean Lite, a reduced version, unless the user purchases a license. Pricing is variable depending on number of licenses; business and multi-user pricing is available from R-Tools Technology.
