How to Erase Your Tracks in Windows 10: Make Windows Forget Everything

By Ava McKinneyOnline Safety

How to Erase Your Tracks in Windows 10: Make Windows Forget Everything

Cookies, browsing history, saved passwords, and Windows registry data—all these treasures can fall into the wrong hands if someone gets access to your computer. That’s why it’s important to know how to delete logs, caches, and cookies so that no one accidentally discovers information you’d rather keep private.

Every “techie” has been asked at least once by friends or acquaintances to “clean up my computer because it’s running slow.” Once, a very respectable-looking gentleman brought me his laptop. The machine was riddled with trojans, and the hidden crypto miners had probably generated enough to double the GDP of a small country. The browser history revealed the owner was a frequent visitor of questionable websites. The moral of the story is simple: before letting anyone use your computer, make sure you’ve cleaned up after yourself. Here’s how to do it right.

Forgetting Recent Activity

Windows, like a sentimental person, keeps a record of recently opened documents and programs. To make it forget the past and start fresh, you could use special software, but there’s a much simpler and more effective way—no extra utilities needed.

  1. Press Windows + R, type recent, and hit Enter. You’ll see a list of all files and folders recently accessed by the current user. Select everything with Ctrl + A and press Del to delete.
  2. Similarly, clean out these folders:
    • %appdata%\microsoft\windows\recent\automaticdestinations\
    • %appdata%\microsoft\windows\recent\CustomDestinations

    These store file paths used by Windows apps.

  3. To automate this, save the following script as a .bat file and run it whenever you want: 
    @ECHO OFF
TITLE ReCeNT FiLEs cLEanUp
del /F /Q %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\*
del /F /Q %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\*
del /F /Q %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations\*
PAUSE
  4. To disable showing frequently used programs in the Start menu, press Windows + R, type ms-settings:personalization, go to the “Start” section, and turn off:
    • Show recently added apps
    • Show most used apps
    • Show recently opened items in Jump Lists on Start or the taskbar

Clearing File Explorer History

Windows File Explorer keeps a history everywhere: in the address bar, Quick Access, and even for autocomplete in the Run dialog. To clear it:

  1. Open File Explorer, go to the “View” tab, and click “Options.”
  2. In the “Privacy” section, uncheck both boxes and click “Clear.”

Automatic Cleanup with Local Group Policy

It would be great if Windows could clean up after itself automatically. You can set this up using Local Group Policy:

  1. Press Windows + R, type gpedit.msc, and hit Enter.
  2. Go to “User Configuration → Administrative Templates → Start Menu and Taskbar” and enable these policies:
    • Clear history of recently opened documents on exit
    • Clear list of recently used programs for new users
    • Clear tile notifications on exit
    • Remove pinned programs list from the Start Menu
    • Remove frequent programs list from the Start Menu
    • Turn off user tracking
    • Do not keep history of recently opened documents
    • Remove Recent Documents menu from Start Menu
    • Do not display or track items in Jump Lists from remote locations
    • Remove “Recently added” list from Start Menu

Deleting Temporary Files

Temporary files not only take up disk space but can also contain useful information. Windows 10 stores temp files in several folders. Open them by typing the following paths in the Run dialog (Windows + R):

  • %temp% (also C:\Users\%Username%\AppData\Local\Temp) — user temp files
  • %windir%\temp — Windows temp files
  • %windir%\Prefetch — cache for speeding up OS and app loading

You can clean these folders manually or use this script:

@ECHO OFF
TITLE TeMp0RaRY F1Les re:MOVeR
RD %TEMP%\. /S /Q
RD %windir%\temp\. /S /Q
RD %windir%\Prefetch \. /S /Q
PAUSE

This script deletes all temp files not currently in use. You can run it manually or schedule it. Alternatively, use the graphical interface: open Settings → System → Storage, click “Temporary files,” check all boxes, and click “Remove files.”

Clearing Browser Cache and History

Windows stores temporary internet files in %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files and cookies in %USERPROFILE%\Cookies. These folders are protected, but browsers let you clear cache and cookies easily:

Microsoft Edge

  1. Click the […] button in the top right corner.
  2. Select “Settings” → “Privacy and security.”
  3. Click “Choose what to clear” under “Clear browsing data,” check all boxes, and click “Clear.”

Firefox

  1. Open the menu in the top right corner and select “Settings.”
  2. Go to “Privacy & Security.”
  3. Find “Cookies and Site Data,” click “Clear Data,” check all boxes, and click “Clear.”

Chrome

  1. Click the menu button in the top right corner.
  2. Go to “Settings → Privacy and security → Clear browsing data.”
  3. Select “All time,” check the boxes, and click “Clear data.”

By default, Chrome deletes data both locally and from your Google profile if you’re signed in. To keep your history and cookies in Google’s cloud, sign out before clearing data.

Opera

  1. Click the menu button in the top right corner.
  2. Go to “Privacy & Security,” click “Clear,” select “All time,” check the boxes, and click “Clear data.”

Yandex Browser

  1. Click “Yandex Browser Settings” at the top panel.
  2. Go to “History” and click “Clear history” at the bottom left.
  3. Select the desired period and data types, then click “Clear.”

Cleaning the Registry

The Windows registry stores a lot of potentially sensitive information, like a list of recently connected USB devices or file locations. Editing or deleting some registry keys is impossible even as an admin, and manual cleanup is time-consuming. To save time, use a free program like LittleRegistryCleaner (requires .NET Framework):

  1. Sections and data categories are shown on the left.
  2. Click “Scan Registry” to find errors and unnecessary keys, then “Fix Problems” to remove them.

Use the “Tools” menu to launch the “Startup Manager” and remove unnecessary startup items—changes are made to the registry automatically.

Another tool, USB Oblivion, is even easier: launch it, check “Perform real cleanup,” and click “Cleanup.” The program will restart as admin, stop interfering Windows services, and delete all registry data related to USB devices. It will reboot your system when done—don’t be alarmed.

Clearing the DNS Cache

DNS isn’t just a chain of electronics stores—it’s the system that translates domain names to IP addresses. Windows caches DNS queries. To clear the DNS cache, run this command in the console:

ipconfig /flushdns

Final Thoughts

Of course, you can use specialized programs like Wise Care 365 to do all this, but I don’t trust them: free utilities often come with unwanted software, sometimes miss things, and after the CCleaner scandals, using such tools can be risky.

It’s much safer to do everything manually or use partial automation with scripts like those above. You can even combine them into a universal script as a DIY project.

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