When you delete a file, email, or piece of internet history on your computer, where do you think it goes? Unfortunately it doesn’t just disappear like many of us would think and hope it does. Every time you use your computer, you’re leaving little footsteps that can be traced back to everything you do. Every word you type, every password you save, and every email that you delete are most likely being saved somewhere on your computer.
To make matters even worse, these little footprints take up valuable hard drive space. Every one that is created will slow down your computer a little bit more, causing more constant crashes and long boot times. Finding these footprints is also almost impossible if you don’t know what you’re doing. Programs can find these without even trying though.
With almost no technological knowledge, a computer user could download a program and retrieve files and emails that you thought you deleted long ago. These pieces of software are a dime a dozen, you never know who could be looking through your history. That means your boss, spouse, or just a friend could search through everything you’ve ever done on your computer; that’s a bit frightening.
The privacy problems with these footprints are very legit. Legal action can be taken against people who haven’t properly cleaned their computers. From divorce to lawsuits, you need to be sure that your computer is being taken care of. Many wives have found incriminating data that their husbands failed to delete properly and have filed for divorce, often taking a lot of money.
One place that the files will store themselves is called the Windows Registry. You can open this program by getting into the run dialogue and executing the command REGEDIT. It is highly recommended you don’t touch anything in this window unless you are absolutely sure you know what you’re doing. You could easily damage or destroy your computer by messing with entries in the Windows Registry.
