14 DAY TRIAL // With the new technology nowadays it is extremely difficult to hide your web browsing traces and your activity on the computer. There is not a move you can do on the computer that cannot be recorded in some log by Windows or a third party program.
There used to be a time when companies monitored the computer activity of each of their employees without their knowledge. The practice is still used in some places, but the difference is that the workers are aware of this fact and act accordingly.
How can you safely browse the Internet and not leave a trace? The answer is locked in a series of applications specially designed for the stealthy activities of the type. SecretMe is a $20 application that acts like a container for all the other programs you want to use without prying eyes to notice. It practically opens the applications in its shell in dynamically created tabs. This way you can navigate between the different programs with ease.
The trial period of the application is 30 days, so there is plenty of time to put it to proper testing. During our tries we found out that SecretMe indeed leaves no trace regarding your web experience and the programs you open on your computer. However, despite its stealth attribute (it does not appear in the taskbar) it fails to hide from keyloggers and its process is perfectly visible in any process manager out there.
The purpose of the application is to instantly hide what you are doing from the prying eyes of your boss or co-workers. The stealth is achieved by simply pressing a combination of keys you define. The next instant all the applications incorporated in SecretMe will disappear from view and only the programs available in the taskbar will be available.
The interface will take your entire desktop and only the taskbar will be accessible for opening the softwares not shelled in SecretMe. The application will not be visible in the taskbar and only a look at the processes running on your computer will reveal its active presence. The applications opened with SecretMe will also be visible in Task Manager as separate processes. To be frank I was expecting SecretMe to take the memory burden of all the softwares opened with it.
The main application window displays three different methods for opening a program in its shell. The first one is manual and you will have to browse to that location of the installed folder and open the executable. After this, all there is to do is click the Go Get It button. Method number two allows you to select from the already running applications and the third way to do it is choose from the running processes. For the last two methods there is an additional option allowing terminating the application or the process, so you can say that SecretMe has the basic functions of a process manager.
The lower part of the application window acts as a file manager. All the filetype associations are preserved and you can safely one them in SecretMe. The three option in between the two windows (application selector and file manager) allow disabling the view of the task manager, mute the system sound and hide all the desktop icons. Enabling one of these three will be prolonged even after SecretMe is terminated. Careful with Show Desktop shortcut in Windows because once you have done this it is a little hard to bring SecretMe back into view. I invoked Task Manager and the SecretMe window popped up too. Trying the SecretMe hotkeys won't lead to a desired result in this case.
The second tab available in the program is SecretWeb. This instrument is specially designed for web browsing and you can safely surf on different pages from here. Suffice to type in the full Internet address and it'll open in an instant. Additional selections you can make in here include opening a more evolved file manager (similar to Windows Explorer, but with less options), set up an internal email client (tried a couple of times but the messages could not be retrieved, despite the fact that the settings were correct).
The FTP client included, though not top of the art, provides the basic options you need, mainly connecting to an address, downloading and uploading files. However, out of four tries, I have successfully connected only twice to the default FTP address supplied by SecretMe.
Grab Website option should allow you downloading an entire website, the data available on it or only the images. Two tests were performed on website downloading. Trying to grab larger websites resulted in complete crash of the application. Our second try involved a small website and SecretMe performed beautifully.
SecretMe is a very interesting application. It comes packed with lots of handy features, but the only trouble is with its stability. Several searches using the top right hand search bar in SecretWeb tab resulted in IE not being able to return the results. Upon restarting the application everything worked fine. Additionally, trying to close some of the tabs may not be complete in some cases and again, restarting SecretMe will solve the problem.
The Good
The application is very nicely drawn and incorporates different utilities that an average user may need during his/her computer activity.
FTP client, mail client, web browsing, playing Windows games, a generous set of search engines, they are all included in one easy to use shell.
The Bad
The worst thing is the instability of the application. I wish the processes would also be invisible (you never know when someone may need to take a look in the Task Manager)
The Truth
Hiding the application with all the programs opened in it works fine. The issue is with its instability, bugs and the fact the all the processes are listed in any process manager. If your own worry is not to be caught by surprise while playing on your computer, then SecretMe is a solution. However, if you want to also hide the processes from Task Manager then start looking for something else.
I guess we should keep the faith and wait until a more advanced and improved version is issued.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
