Prevent people from spying on you by eliminating all traces of your Internet and PC activities, giving you a faster, smoother, and error-free machine with more disk space. The program allows you to peek inside files or registries before deletion and includes a specialized cookie washer. Schedule washes or autowash when your browser or computer starts or exits. Choose from six vitally important wipe algorithms. Create your own custom washes with AMD-flexible tools. The program includes eight browsers, from Internet Explorer to Firefox; cleans 21 Windows system areas, including visited sites and the Recycle Bin; and wipes unused disk space, seven MS Office areas, five music and video players including Windows Media Player and QuickTime, and seven chat and IM programs, including ICQ and Trillian.

Version 1.57 adds Webshots Desktop to the wash list and improves washing for certain application types that run in the background.

Editor's review of Active Privacy Guardian Washer Keeps your nose clean This privacy utility earns our praise for both its comprehensive feature set and its clever design. Active Privacy Guardian Washer arranges all supported browsers, system areas, and applications in a tree-like structure in the main window's left pane. The right pane lets you preview all items within each category, such as cookies or temporary Internet files. We appreciated the program's support for a whopping eight Web browsers, including such lesser-known ones as Avant and NetCaptor. As with other privacy applications, it also can wipe your history from common system areas such as the Clipboard and the Run menu. Active Privacy Guardian Washer erases tracks from a huge number of third-party applications, including IM clients, media players, the Microsoft Office suite, and multiple file-sharing applications. Although you can choose to clean data according to several secure govermental algorithms, you won't find a dedicated file shredder. Despite that omission and the somewhat short two-week trial period, we can enthusiastically recommend this program to those seeking to keep their PC activities to themselves.