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CNET Editors' review
As you know, Windows saves a copy of more or less everything on your computer. Every Web site you visit, every picture, every video; it's all cached or saved or logged somewhere inside your PC. Apart from the security and privacy issues, all that stuff consumes storage and performance resources. A lot of tools promise to clean it all out, but few do. We looked at East-Tec Eraser 2011 from East Technologies, and found it to be a tool that can do the job. It cleans deeply, even files stored as Shadow Volume Copies; thoroughly wipes deleted files; alerts you to risks; runs scheduled cleanups; and cleans traces from all major (and many minor) browsers as well as messenger programs and other popular applications.
East-Tec Eraser 2011's wizard-based interface opened with a Quick Start page with three basic options: Privacy Guard, Erase Deleted Data, and a tool that erases specific data. We started with Privacy Guard in basic mode, which is suitable for most users. There's also an advanced mode. A thorough scan revealed quite a list of cookies, images, videos, Web pages, deleted files, and other PC debris. A review found nothing on the removal list that shouldn't have been there, so we let the cleaning commence. Clicking Change Automation let us configure the scan wizard. When the operation finished, Eraser recommended an immediate reboot, though we could also choose Restart Later or Ignore and Continue. This last option is a "use with caution" option that won't launch Eraser when you reboot and in fact hides your use of the program (for example, from your boss) upon reboot. We clicked Restart and Erase, which restarted our system and returned us to the Eraser interface. The Risk Monitor runs from the system tray; it popped up with an alert that required the Erase Deleted Data tool. This tool makes multiple passes and can take hours, according to Eraser, although our session was much quicker.
Eraser's automated, customizable deep cleaning can help you protect your privacy and security and keep your machine free of a lot of junk without requiring a lot of regular input or effort. While no tool of its type is set-and-forget, Eraser won't forget to do its job when the issue has slipped off your radar.
Editors' note: This is a review of the full version of East-Tec Eraser 2011 9.9.8.200. The trial version is limited to 15 days.
Publisher's Description
From EAST Technologies:
Protect your data and privacy and remove all evidence of your computer and online activity with East-Tec Eraser 2011. Eraser meets and exceeds government and industry standards for the permanent erasure of digital information and removes every trace of sensitive data from your computer, including Internet history, Web pages, pictures, unwanted cookies, conversations, and all traces of files, confidential documents, e-mails deleted in the past, or entire drives, floppy disks, CDs/DVDs, USB flash drives.
East-Tec Eraser 2011 cleans away evidence from the latest versions of the most popular Internet browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, AOL, MSN Explorer, Opera, Safari) and hundreds of popular programs (Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, AOL Messenger, ICQ, Outlook and Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora, Limewire, Morpheus, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, Winamp, Google Toolbar). East-Tec Eraser 2011 features an intuitive interface and wizards, automatic cleaning of your computer at specified intervals, Anti-Surprise (Anti-Boss/Panic) key to protect your privacy in emergency situations, support for custom privacy needs, user-defined erasure methods, built-in safety features that prevent you from accidentally removing critical files or folders, password protection.
What's new in this version: Version 9.9.8.200:
- New and updated sensitive areas in Privacy Guard
- Improvements of internal wiping routines to work more efficiently under Windows 7 and Windows Vista
- Minor bug fixes
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All versions:
4.0 starsout of 50 votes
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Current version:
4.5 starsout of 2 votes
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My rating:
Write review
Results 1-2 of 2
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"Squeeky Clean and Excellent Customer Service"
Version: East-Tec Eraser 2011 9.9.8.200
Pros
Seems to clean almost everything thoroughly, Customer Service is very responsive and provided solutions within a day. Overall we highly recommend this product above all of the other secure cleaning products we have tried thus far.
Cons
The only con we discovered relates to the additional data discovered by CCleaner immediately after running Privacy Guard. Made us wonder what else it might be missing. We highly recommend you use it with CCleaner if maximum security is your concern.
Summary
An associate of ours is an engineer at Intel and has our machine to do an analysis of the depth and comprehensiveness of the cleaning accomplished by this program, and promised to get back with any shortcomings discovered. Pending that review revealing information to the contrary, we believe this product to be the most thorough available. We will re-post if there are any issues discovered to the contrary. We asked for his evaluation because the additional data discovered by CCleaner made us wonder what else it might be missing. Their excellent customer service answered our neophyte questions clearly and offered immediate solutions to our concerns that solved all of our issues quickly. They even followed-up to make sure their suggested solutions solved our concerns. We believe this product to be as close to perfect as is currently available and the Customer Service experience will cause us to remain East-Tec customers because they are responsive and thorough in their support. We have tried myriad security wiping software because of the mission-critical financial data, proprietary information sometimes not encrypted when sent through our emails, and the new, stringent privacy laws raising our potential liability if some of our customer's data ends up in the wrong hands. The ability to schedule cleanings to happen overnight and then shut down the computer after cleaning is complete is one of the most convenient features of the software. Compared to other programs we have tried at all price points, we believe East-Tec Eraser to be at the top of its class and highly recommend it when used in conjunction with CCleaner. Perhaps East-Tec will read this review and address this issue in a future upgrade, (any information discovered by our engineer friend notwithstanding), and that would make this program perfect in our view. Definitely the most bang for the buck! Five Enthusiastic Stars!
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"does everything as advertised"
Version: East-Tec Eraser 2011 9.9.8.200
Pros
very good automatic cleaning
Cons
had for more than two years and so far no cons other than it would help if they could speed up system PS I only have a duel core computer
Results 1-2 of 2
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