Computer Mags: How do I "clean" my computer before I leave my job?

[Froman]

I'm leaving my job to go back to school, and I'm wondering how I clear out my internet history before I turn in my computer to IT. Also, are there any other things I should erase?

I'm leaving on good terms, and I don't want them to find out how much time I wasted on the board.

[irul&ublo]

I'm leaving my job to go back to school, and I'm wondering how I clear out my internet history before I turn in my computer to IT. Also, are there any other things I should erase?

I'm leaving on good terms, and I don't want them to find out how much time I wasted on the board.

They already know.

[Tuckerman]

fdisk......

[Telenater]

fdisk......

Fdisk might not make you any friends...

The most you can easily do is to clear your cache, cookies, and history. Going beyond that requires significantly more work. If they want to invest time beyond simply looking at your histories, you're not leaving on good terms anyways.

[dr_scrotus]

fdisk......

How much looking will they be doing? Assuming it is company computer, you can't write zeros/format unless you want go through installing windows the way they had it with all of their software. In normal circumstances, I think your best bet is to clear your history, delete cookies, and delete temporary internet files. Most of these files can potentially be recovered, but honestly, if you did a good job while there, I seen no reason why they'd go through the trouble of digging up your browsing habits.

[snowsprite]

Don't forget to erase crap you may have left in "My Documents" and "My Pictures." Really you should remove any mp3's, photos, programs you installed (just go into control panel and un-install them) or saved on your computer.

I love it when the people who leave clean up as much as possible. Every little bit helps...less to deal with for we who are called upon to clean up.

Sprite

[Buzzworthy]

Do this and what Sprite said.

CCcleaner will erase cookies, temp internet files, visited sites,.......


I do this once a week.

[Andy_B]

Do this and what Sprite said.<snip>

And uninstall it when your done.

[summit]

DOD overwrite standard is 7 passes... 16 is better... but 16 was considered better 10 years ago...

I recommend using fire.

[advres]

[Hayduke]

Here you go...

[edg]

Here you go...

Are you sure that works for cleaning the keyboard, too?

edg

[mattitude]

If you use any instant messaging clients make sure you clear out the logs of all of your conversations.

[Free Range Lobster]

shoulda used a tissue first time around dude.

[icanseeformiles(andmiles)]

do your IT guys really have the time to look? (as if they haven't been monitoring your internet activity all the time, anyway). Really, at lots of companies they'll just reimage the machine and pass it on to the next lemming.

[snowsprite]

True, we actually just reimage the machines when people leave...unless it's going to a shared area or it can just sit in the stockroom for a while until people need it.

But I have seen some crazy shit on people's computers during my tenure (yes I have looked)...notably in temporary internet files. Like a bunch of urls with the words "teen" and "slut" in them, urls containing "bear" and "men," (not that there's anything wrong with that) and, well...QVC of course (:::shudder::.

Sprite

[pappag]

Take some tips from this guy:

[Staggerwing]

Darik's Boot and Nuke.
Unless you want to leave on a really bad note, unplug from the network before running. There won't be anything left on HD following.