Best free file shredder
Microsoft Surface Data Eraser is a simple tool that boots from a USB stick and allows a user to perform a secure wipe of all data from a compatible Surface device 4] Free File Shredder softwareĪpart from these, there are other freeware to delete files permanently.
Read: How to wipe Hard Disk and MFT clean. Cipher is a command-line tool from Microsoft that lets you encrypt, decrypt, securely erase, wipe deleted data and free space. With the SDelete tool from Microsoft, which you can download for free, you can overwrite the contents of free space on your disk to prevent deleted or encrypted files from being recovered. Microsoft SysInternals also has a powerful tool that lets you delete files permanently. 2] Delete files permanently with SDelete or Cipher from Microsoft Do note that though the application is distributed as freeware, the author accepts donations from its users, so do not get irritated if you find a ‘Donate’ window appearing on your computer screen, once a week. Since Free File Wiper is a portable application, it does not require any kind of installation method and can be easily carried on a USB drive. The tool will continue to work, nevertheless. If you don’t like the icon appearing on your desktop, once you have set your options, you can right-click it again and select Exit. The operation is super quick and once initiated, cannot be canceled. Whenever files are selected and deleted the icon residing in the system tray turns red and displays delete progress. Right-clicking allows you to set the options. The tool displays an icon near the taskbar. The files or folders that are deleted are overwritten with standard and random patterns and after the wipe, cannot be undeleted or restored. Once you decide to shred a file and send it via the context menu, you will get a confirmation box first.Īfter you click Yes, the files will be deleted permanently. It a simple utility that lets you permanently delete files and folders via the context menu. You can delete files and data securely and permanently by using the following methods:
Delete Files Permanently in Windows 11/10 To delete, erase or destroy them permanently, you can use any one of these free tools. You can many times recover deleted files. Similarly, files that have been EFS-encrypted leave behind the unencrypted contents of the file on the disk. However, one can still recover the file’s contents, until it has been overwritten by another file, which may or may never happens. When you delete a file, using the Empty Recycle Bin function, Windows 10/8/7 removes the index for the file and prevents the operating system from accessing the file’s contents. A user can then when he wants, manually clear out the Recycle Bin by using its ‘Empty Recycle Bin’ function. This ensures that the user can still browse the deleted files and restore them if they have been deleted accidentally. The Recycle Bin in Windows operating system behaves like a special directory where the deleted files can be stored temporarily before deleting all of them completely.