14 DAY TRIAL // The key word of the 21st century is definitely "privacy". With all the globalization around and the aligning to all sorts of standards one needs to have something for oneself and keep it that way. Privacy in all its senses is attacked from everywhere and if we bring computer privacy on the table then the subject is indeed hot enough to concerns us all.
There is nothing you can do on your computer without someone keeping an eye on your actions. Of course, the person watching you should have an interest in your computer and your activity. Do not imagine that every computer is watched, no matter what, but the activity on a machine connected to the Internet can be easily tracked due to spyware and the temporary folders from different applications and Windows itself.
More than one person using the same computer regularly is generally a crowd. But sometimes there is nothing you can do about this. This is one of the reasons computer cleaning softwares have emerged on the market. Shadow Professional is more than a temporary files cleaning tool and will offer you the much wanted security for your web activity and secure deleting of the files. More than that, it sports a disk wiping tool for making unrecoverable all the files you have already erased using the habitual method.
Its price is $39.95 and the 30 days trial period allows complete testing of all the features. The options it is strapped with cover all the necessary trace cleaning tools and will offer the user the privacy we all long for.
The interface welcomes you with two central buttons and the list of available options at the bottom of the window. Invisisurf technology allows the user to block history and evidence recording while you are browsing the Internet. In order to activate it, all you have to do is press the Start button after the application is launched. From that moment on nothing will be recorded. The beauty of this feature is that all the web surfing history, cache and temporaries outside the privacy sessions will be saved with no problem. Only in privacy mode this data is not recorded.
Configuring the program is extremely easy and includes settings options for all the features available. General Settings comprises five tabs that allow you to set the program to start with Windows, password the launch (so that only authorized persons can manage it), set up the hot keys for bringing the application from stealth mode, start/stop privacy mode and executing the default erasing procedure.
For a better cleaning you should close the web browsers and you can configure the application to automatically do this when a cleaning is scheduled. A very useful feature of the boss key is that it will not hide/show Shadow Professional, but you can add a number of softwares that will be equally affected by the hiding/unhiding action.
The last tab in General Settings is Schedule. It allows you to program Shadow Professional to run auto-erase option at a regular time interval (minutes, hours, days, weeks). Auto-erase can also be set to take place at Windows Startup, shut down or web browser shut down.
Privacy Mode Settings is designed to let you choose the browsers that will be affected by the session and select the Windows history tracks and programs that privacy mode should deal with. Secure deleting the files stored on your computer means that once they have been erased there isn't too much to do to recover them as chances are they are lost forever. The wiping algorithms available include the major standards: DoD 5220-22.M (4 passes) , Military Standard (8 passes) and my favorite, Peter Gutmann (35 passes).
A very interesting option for the users is that you can set the wiping algorithm to be run more than once for better security. And yet there is a downside of this feature and that is that the files are not renamed before wiping. Having added this function, the probabilities of recovering one of the wiped files would have been extremely slim and even impossible for a home user.
To tell you the truth, I was not expecting at all to see a bookmark manager in Shadow Professional. But the developer did very well by including this in the software. If you have no bookmarks of your own the author makes available a pretty large number of bookmarks to choose from. The categories of interest provided cover online dating, social networking, entertainment, gambling/betting/lotto, stock, shopping, medical and travel. In the properties window of the item you can add the access details (username and password).
Shadow Professional is smart enough to let the user choose the items that should be erased from the computer. The alternatives can be configured and, from the many locations presented in there, there is one that simply baffled me: erasing the prefetch folder. Why would you do such a thing? Prefetch is Windows XP native and its purpose is faster loading of the applications.
If you really want to delete something in there the manual way is the key to do it properly. It is located in Window root and contains .pf files of the applications that run on your computer. Take a look and delete all the files that you no longer need (of the already removed applications). With regards to the cookies, you have the possibility of keeping some of them, as well as some of the typed URL addresses.
The flexibility of the application goes quite far and if some of the softwares are not listed in the plug-ins section then you can customize it and add the registry keys or guide Shadow Professional to the folders that need to be emptied. By creating new plug-ins you can ensure that no program installed on your computer will be able to leave another trace.
Securing the access to your files is also possible with Shadow Professional. Inside the installation folder there will be a directory called My Secret Folder. You can securely deposit all the sensitive data in here as once you exit the program the folder will automatically be encrypted and hidden from prying eyes. Modifying the location is no sweat and this can be achieved in Privacy Mode Settings, under Browsers and Sessions.
The Good
Shadow Professional comes fully equipped with trace deleting options that include disk wiper, secret folders, secure deletion and more. Every option functioned properly and the flexibility allows modifying the list of plug-ins.
The innovative Invisisurf technology lets the user surf the web without any activity to be recorded.
The Bad
I wonder if the option for cleaning Windows Prefetch folder is a glitch...
There are some minor spelling mistakes here and there, but mostly in the Help menu.
The Truth
Scheduling option is indeed most valuable and the wipe algorithms are top notch (especially if you take into consideration the multiple times it can be repeated). From a purely objective point of view, I think the price is a bit high. I think a $5 cut off would be just right. Other then these, go ahead and try it for yourselves, there is no restriction besides the 30 days trial period.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
