Erase browser and Windows traces
Erase the traces that browsers, Windows and programs leave behind, such as history, cookies, temporary files and thumbnails.
Prerequisites: You have saved form entries and other work in your browsers; open browsers are closed before the erasure. You know which saved passwords and bookmarks you still need.
- Select Privacy, or on the start page select Browser data or Windows and program data.
- Select Check now (or Check again). The list shows how many traces each category contains.
- Expand the areas and select the categories. Select all and Clear selection change all categories at once. The selection is saved for the next time.
- Check the selection once more, in particular Passwords and form data, Bookmarks and Browser settings.
- Select Erase selected traces.
- If browsers are open, confirm that they may be closed.
Result: The selected traces are overwritten and deleted. The start page shows the date of the cleanup for browser data and Windows data.
Browser data
O&O SafeErase cleans Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera and Opera GX, including all browser profiles; see System requirements for the versions. The page lists the installed browsers with their version. A version marked as not supported is not cleaned.
| Category | What is deleted |
|---|---|
| History | Visited websites. |
| Download history | The list of downloaded files. The downloaded files themselves are kept. |
| Cookies | Sign-ins and stored website data. You will be signed out of websites. To keep the cookies of certain websites, see Keep cookies of selected websites. |
| Cache | Cached pages and images. |
| Passwords and form data | Saved passwords and form entries. They are deleted permanently. |
| Bookmarks | Saved favorites. |
| Browser settings | Start page, search engine and other settings are reset. |
Brave and Vivaldi offer no Browser settings category; Opera and Opera GX offer neither Bookmarks nor Browser settings.
Data that is kept
Brave, Vivaldi, Opera and Opera GX store data of their own features in the same files as their settings and bookmarks. O&O SafeErase never erases this data, whichever categories you select:
- Brave: Brave Wallet and Brave Rewards.
- Vivaldi: notes, mail and feeds, calendar, contacts and saved sessions. Speed Dials are bookmarks in Vivaldi and are erased with Bookmarks.
- Opera and Opera GX: Speed Dial, the VPN and sidebar settings, the data that the sidebar messengers and Pinboards store, and GX Mods. Erasing Cookies still signs you out of the messengers.
Windows and program data
| Category | What is deleted |
|---|---|
| Recent documents | Shortcuts in “Recent”. The documents themselves are kept. |
| Temporary Windows files | Contents of %TEMP% and Windows\Temp. |
| Thumbnail cache | Picture previews in File Explorer. |
| Recycle Bin | Deleted items in the Recycle Bin. |
| Memory dumps | Kernel dumps after system crashes. |
| CheckDisk files | Fragments recovered by CheckDisk (*.chk). |
| Saved FTP credentials | FTP credentials saved in File Explorer. |
Browser and Windows traces cannot be erased in Fortress Mode.
Next steps
- Keep cookies of selected websites
- Choose which browsers are cleaned: Settings