User manual ACRONIS PRIVACY EXPERT SUITE 9.0

User's Guide Acronis Privacy Expert Suite 9.0 Compute with confidence www.acronis.com Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005. All rights reserved. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. OS/2 is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. Windows and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their respective owners. Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is prohibited without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. Distribution of this work or derivative work in any standard (paper) book form for commercial purposes is prohibited unless prior permission is obtained from the copyright holder. DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED «AS IS» AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE DISCLAIMED, EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT THAT SUCH DISCLAIMERS ARE HELD TO BE LEGALLY INVALID. 2 END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT BY ACCEPTING, YOU (ORIGINAL PURCHASER) INDICATE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO ACCEPT THE PRODUCT UNDER THESE TERMS, YOU MAY CHOOSE NOT TO ACCEPT BY SELECTING "I decline..." AND NOT INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE. The Acronis Privacy Expert Suite (the software) is Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005. All rights are reserved. The ORIGINAL PURCHASER is granted a LICENSE to use the software only, subject to the following restrictions and limitations. 1. The license is to the original purchaser only, and is not transferable without prior written permission from Acronis. 2. The original purchaser may use the software on a single computer owned or leased by the original purchaser. You may not use the software on more than one machine even if you own or lease all of them, without the written consent of Acronis. 3. The original purchaser may not engage in, nor permit third parties to engage in, any of the following: A. Providing or permitting use of or disclosing the software to third parties. B. Providing use of the software in a computer service business, network, timesharing or multiple user arrangement to users who are not individually licensed by Acronis. C. Making alterations or copies of any kind in the software (except as specifically permitted above). D. Attempting to un-assemble, de-compile or reverse engineer the software in any way. E. Granting sublicenses, leases or other rights in the software to others. F. Making copies or verbal or media translations of the users guide. G. Making telecommunication data transmission of the software. Acronis has the right to terminate this license if there is a violation of its terms or default by the original purchaser. Upon termination for any reason, all copies of the software must be immediately returned to Acronis, and the original purchaser shall be liable to Acronis for any and all damages suffered as a result of the violation or default. ENTIRE RISK THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS WITH YOU THE PURCHASER. ACRONIS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SOFTWARE OR ITS FUNCTIONS WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE OR THAT ANY DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED. NO LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES -- IN NO EVENT SHALL ACRONIS OR ITS VENDORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR THE LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, OR ANY OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ACRONIS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. 3 Table of Contents END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT.................................................................................................. 3 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................... 7 What is Acronis Privacy Expert Suite? ................................................................................................ 7 Why is it necessary to keep PC work confidential? ............................................................................. 7 Standards of guaranteed destruction of confidential information ......................................................... 8 What's new in Acronis Privacy Expert Suite 9.0? ................................................................................ 8 What Acronis Privacy Expert Suite enables you to clean up ............................................................... 9 How to find information you need in this guide: ................................................................................... 9 System requirements ........................................................................................................................ 10 Software use conditions .................................................................................................................... 10 Technical support .............................................................................................................................. 11 CHAPTER 1. 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 CHAPTER 2. 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.4.1 2.4.2 2.4.3 2.4.4 2.4.5 2.4.6 INSTALLING ACRONIS PRIVACY EXPERT SUITE........................................... 12 Installing the program ............................................................................................... 12 Recovering Acronis Privacy Expert Suite................................................................. 13 Acronis Privacy Expert Suite extracting ................................................................... 13 Removing the software............................................................................................. 14 WORKING WITH ACRONIS PRIVACY EXPERT SUITE .................................... 15 Getting started .......................................................................................................... 15 Working in the main program window ...................................................................... 15 Basic operation principles ........................................................................................ 16 Acronis Privacy Expert Suite options ....................................................................... 17 General options .................................................................................................................. 17 Clean-up Options ............................................................................................................... 17 Scheduled tasks ................................................................................................................. 18 Explorer enhancements ..................................................................................................... 18 Invoking the scheduler ....................................................................................................... 18 Scheduled tasks preferences ............................................................................................. 19 2.5 CHAPTER 3. Using the Log ........................................................................................................... 20 MALICIOUS SOFTWARE REMOVAL AND MALWARE SHIELD ...................... 22 How malware gets on your PC .......................................................................................................... 22 How to recognize malware? .............................................................................................................. 22 If you need to:.................................................................................................................................... 23 3.1 Malicious software removal ...................................................................................... 23 3.1.1 Removing malware with the Malicious Software Wizard..................................................... 23 3.1.2 Setting up the Malicious Software Wizard .......................................................................... 25 Selecting scanning mode .................................................................................................................. 25 Setting up Deep scanning mode ....................................................................................................... 26 Saving settings .................................................................................................................................. 26 3.2 Malicious software protection ................................................................................... 26 3.2.1 Enabling Malware shield..................................................................................................... 27 3.2.2 Setting up Malware shield .................................................................................................. 27 Setting up the system protection level ............................................................................................... 27 General settings ................................................................................................................................ 28 Process analyzing ............................................................................................................................. 29 Registry protection ............................................................................................................................ 29 Memory protection............................................................................................................................. 30 File protection.................................................................................................................................... 31 Specified rules................................................................................................................................... 31 History ............................................................................................................................................... 32 4 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 Show alerts........................................................................................................................................ 32 3.3 3.4 3.4.1 3.4.2 3.4.3 3.4.4 Quarantine................................................................................................................ 33 Malware definitions updates..................................................................................... 34 Product registration ............................................................................................................ 34 Running Malicious Software Definitions Updates Wizard ................................................... 35 Selecting update mode....................................................................................................... 35 Setting the schedule........................................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 4. 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.3.1 4.3.2 4.3.3 4.3.4 4.3.5 4.3.6 INTERNET CLEAN-UP......................................................................................... 37 General information .................................................................................................. 37 Using the Internet Clean-up Wizard ......................................................................... 37 Internet Clean-up Wizard Settings ........................................................................... 39 «Data Destruction Method» settings .................................................................................. 39 «Internet Browsers» setting................................................................................................ 39 «Address» setting............................................................................................................... 40 «File» settings .................................................................................................................... 42 «Data filter» settings........................................................................................................... 43 «E-mail clients» settings..................................................................................................... 43 4.4 CHAPTER 5. 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.3.1 5.3.2 5.3.3 5.3.4 5.3.5 5.3.6 Cleaning up separate Internet components ............................................................. 44 SYSTEM CLEAN-UP ............................................................................................ 45 General information .................................................................................................. 45 Using the System Clean-up Wizard ......................................................................... 45 System Clean-up Wizard settings ............................................................................ 46 «Data Destruction Method» settings .................................................................................. 47 «Files» settings .................................................................................................................. 47 «Computers» setting .......................................................................................................... 48 «Drive Free Space» setting................................................................................................ 49 «Commands» setting ......................................................................................................... 50 «System Password Filter» setting ...................................................................................... 50 5.4 CHAPTER 6. 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.3.1 6.3.2 6.3.3 Cleaning up separate system components .............................................................. 51 APPLICATION TRACES CLEAN-UP .................................................................. 52 General information .................................................................................................. 52 Using the Application Traces Clean-up Wizard........................................................ 52 Application Traces Clean-up Wizard settings .......................................................... 53 «Data Destruction Method» settings .................................................................................. 53 Select Applications ............................................................................................................. 54 «Files» settings .................................................................................................................. 55 CHAPTER 7. 7.1 7.2 7.3 CHAPTER 8. 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.3.1 8.3.2 8.3.3 8.3.4 8.3.5 MY PRIVACY TOOLS........................................................................................... 57 General information .................................................................................................. 57 Using File Shredder.................................................................................................. 58 Paging file cleaner .................................................................................................... 58 ACRONIS POP-UP BLOCKER ............................................................................ 60 What are pop-ups? ................................................................................................... 60 Acronis Pop-up Blocker............................................................................................ 60 Acronis Pop-up Blocker settings .............................................................................. 60 Acronis Pop-up Blocker General Settings .......................................................................... 61 User List ............................................................................................................................. 61 Black List............................................................................................................................ 61 History ................................................................................................................................ 62 Acronis Pop-up Blocker options ......................................................................................... 63 CHAPTER 9. 9.1 9.2 ACRONIS DRIVE CLEANSER............................................................................. 65 Acronis Drive Cleanser capabilities.......................................................................... 65 Working with Acronis Drive Cleanser....................................................................... 65 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 5 9.3 9.4 9.4.1 9.4.2 9.4.3 9.4.4 Using preset data destruction methods.................................................................... 66 Creating custom methods of data destruction.......................................................... 68 Creating custom methods .................................................................................................. 68 Method definition: template ................................................................................................ 69 Saving a custom method to file .......................................................................................... 73 Loading a method from a file .............................................................................................. 75 9.5 Creating a bootable diskette or CD with Acronis Drive Cleanser ............................ 75 HARD DISK WIPING METHODS........................................................................ 76 APPENDIX A. A.1 A.2 Information wiping methods' functioning principles.................................................. 76 Information wiping methods used by Acronis........................................................... 77 MALWARE THREATS GLOSSARY................................................................... 78 APPENDIX B. Adware .............................................................................................................................................. 78 Browser Helper Objects..................................................................................................................... 78 Browser hijackers .............................................................................................................................. 78 Commercial keylogger....................................................................................................................... 78 Dialers ............................................................................................................................................... 78 Exploit/Security holes ........................................................................................................................ 79 Backdoor ........................................................................................................................................... 79 Sniffers .............................................................................................................................................. 79 Spyware ............................................................................................................................................ 79 Toolbars ............................................................................................................................................ 79 Trojan Horses (Trojans) .................................................................................................................... 79 6 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 Introduction Introduction What is Acronis Privacy Expert Suite? Acronis Privacy Expert Suite is an integrated software suite that provides confidentiality and protects standalone PCs or machines connected to the Internet. The following confidentiality: capabilities of Acronis Privacy Expert Suite ensure PC Clean-up of malicious software that secretly operates on a user's PC Proactive protection from malicious software threats PC hard disk and Windows partition clean-up of any traces of user actions Unwanted pop-up ad blocking for convenient Web browsing Guaranteed confidential data destruction on selected hard disks or disk partitions Unlike other software, Acronis Privacy Expert Suite fully removes evidence of PC usage through the use of guaranteed data destruction methods. It also increases PC performance by cleaning out temporary files. Why is it necessary to keep PC work confidential? Working with a PC creates a number of serious security problems for users: While installing software on your PC, you might unknowingly install malware -- malicious programs that secretly change system settings, collect and transfer personal information to external addresses, and perform other unwanted and uncontrollable actions. You have created and deleted many files on your computer. You do not want anyone to view them. But is a deleted file really gone? No! The problem is that deleted files can be easily recovered under the Windows operating system to gain access to information a user would like to conceal. Windows and the most widely used browsers, Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, provide very weak protection on keeping trace Internet data private. While working with a PC, you leave thousands of bytes of evidence showing your actions (records in various system files) that you don't even know about. This could include user names and passwords. When replacing your old hard drive with a new, higher-capacity one, you potentially could leave lots of important and confidential information on the old drive that can be recovered, even if you reformat the drive. Acronis Privacy Expert Suite provides a solution to all of these problems. It assures complete confidentiality of your PC and Internet actions and prevents situations that threaten your computer and general security. Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 7 Introduction Standards of guaranteed destruction of confidential information The software offers the guaranteed destruction of confidential information on hard disk drives with the help of special tools. Acronis methods comply with most national standards: American: U.S. Standard, DoD 5220.22-M American: NAVSO P-5239-26 (RLL) American: NAVSO P-5239-26 (MFM) German: VSITR Russian: GOST P50739-95 Besides methods corresponding to national standards, Acronis supports predefined methods proposed by widely known and authoritative specialists in the field of information security: Peter Gutmann's method ­ data on a hard disk is destroyed with 35 passes Bruce Schneier's method ­ data is destroyed with seven passes The suite also supports simple but fast methods of information destruction that zero all sectors on a single hard disk pass. Another major feature of this version is the opportunity for you to create your own methods for data destruction. The most popular at the moment is the U.S. Standard, Department of Defense 5220.22-M method. Therefore, Acronis Privacy Expert Suite utilizes it by default for all user trace removal operations. Detailed information on data destruction standards is given in Appendix A «Hard Disk Wiping methods» of this guide. What's new in Acronis Privacy Expert Suite 9.0? Acronis Privacy Expert Suite has many new features that make it a fully integrated software suite. They include: User-friendly and simple wizards that quickly remove all traces of user actions from PCs quickly, efficiently and effectively Improved Malicious Software Wizard that scans your computer for malicious software and moves it in the Quarantine folder Fully new Malware shield ­ continuous malicious software protection that now offers multiple levels of security Daily updated malware definitions base Quarantine feature enables the user restore and remove malicious objects (files, registry keys etc.), deleted by malicious software removal operations Updated Acronis Pop-up Blocker - convenient and powerful tool protecting you from importunate pop-up advertising Additionally, improvements have been made to provide even more convenience. 8 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 Introduction What Acronis Privacy Expert Suite enables you to clean up The suite enables you to remove the evidence of your work in any Windows section. It allows you: to remove secretly operating malicious software threats using the Malicious Software Wizard to protect your PC from malware threats using Malware shield to clean the Internet cache to delete cookies to delete downloaded components to clean up the last visited pages and typed URLs lists to delete forms autocomplete and password lists for Web sites that require authorization to delete e-mail messages in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express and clean up the contacts and address book lists to remove Windows registry backups that retain evidence of a user's work with PCs and the Internet to delete temporary files from standard Windows folders to delete custom folders/files from any disks connected to a PC to clean the Windows Recycle Bin to clean hard disk free space to clean the Windows prefetch directory to clean system passwords to clean the opened/saved files history to remove evidence from the find files list and find computers list to block unwanted pop-up ads using Acronis Pop-up Blocker to destroy securely all data on hard disks or partitions using Acronis Drive Cleanser, if needed to clean up the Windows paging/swap file using Paging File Cleaner Acronis Privacy Expert Suite permanently removes evidence of user PC activity. To clean up a PC, it uses strict methods for guaranteed confidential data destruction that meet or exceed most national/state standards (see Appendix A «Hard Disk Wiping methods» for details). How to find information you need in this guide: This guide contains the following chapters: Chapter 1«Installing Acronis Privacy Expert Suite» -- contains detailed information about the installation of this software. Chapter 2 «Working with Acronis Privacy Expert Suite» -- describes common principles and settings. Chapter 3 «Malicious software removal and Malware shield» -- describes malicious software removal and Malware shield settings. Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 9 Introduction Chapter 4«Internet e-mail traces removal. Clean-up» -- describes Web and Chapter 5« System Clean-up» -- offers detailed information on how to clean up your Windows system of all user traces Chapter 6«Application Traces Clean-up» -- describes how to remove application usage traces from Windows using the Application Traces Clean-up Wizard. Chapter 7«My privacy tools» -- provides general information on additional tools and wizards that provide the means to completely delete data from your PC, either with the suite installed, or just from a bootable diskette. Chapter 8«Acronis Pop-up Blocker» -- describes how to use the Acronis Popup Blocker. 0«Options Acronis Drive Cleanser» -- provides tools for guaranteed data destruction on selected drives or partitions. Appendix A«Hard Disk Wiping methods» -- contains more detailed information about methods of guaranteed confidential data destruction on a PC hard disk. Appendix B «Malware threats glossary» -- contains supplemental information on the most popular spyware and spyware parasites that Acronis Privacy Expert Suite protects you from. System requirements To take full advantage of Acronis Privacy Expert Suite, you should have: a PC-compatible computer with a Pentium CPU or equivalent 32 MB RAM a floppy or a CD-RW drive a mouse (recommended) Microsoft Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/ or Microsoft Windows NT Server/2000 Server/2000 Advanced Server/Windows 2003 Server Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher for correct Pop-up Blocker operation. Software use conditions The conditions for use of Acronis Privacy Expert Suite are listed in the supplied «License Agreement». The registration card that came with the software is your proof that you legally purchased the suite. Each registration card has a unique number. Based on current legislation, the «License Agreement» is considered as a contract between the user and software vendor. Violation of the contract may lead to prosecution. 10 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 Introduction Illegal use or distribution of software is a violation of the law and will be prosecuted. Technical support Users who have legally purchased and registered their copy of Acronis Privacy Expert Suite will receive free technical support from Acronis. If you have installation or working problems that you can't solve by yourself using this manual and the readme.txt file, email the technical support team. You will need to provide the serial number of your Acronis Privacy Expert Suite copy bundled with the program. Before you do this, you will have to register http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/products/registration/ Support URL: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/support/ your copy at Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 11 Installing Acronis Privacy Expert Suite Chapter 1. Installing Acronis Privacy Expert Suite 1.1 Installing the program To install Acronis Privacy Expert Suite: 1. Run the setup file. 2. In the Install Menu, click on the Install Acronis Privacy Expert Suite. 3. Read and accept the terms of the license agreement, then click Next. 4. Enter the serial number provided with product. 5. In the Choose setup type window, choose setup type: Typical - installs most common program features (recommended for most users). Custom - allows users to choose program features to install and select a location for setup (recommended for advanced users). If you pick Custom, you can select components to install. You can even install only one program component and it will work as a standalone program (for example, you can install only the Acronis Pop-up Blocker to block the annoying pop-ups). Complete - all program features will be installed (requires the most disk space). 6. In the Select Administrators Options window, choose Install for all users or Install for the currently logged-in user, then click Next. 7. Click Proceed to begin installation. To make changes in the setup, use Back and Next buttons. 8. After installation, reboot your PC. If you installed program from the installation CD, please, do not forget to remove this CD from the drive before you restart your PC to avoid booting from this CD. 12 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 Acronis Privacy Expert Suite install menu If you run the Acronis Privacy Expert Suite under Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0, then make sure that Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) version 2.5 is installed on your computer. To install MDAC on your computer, run the "mdac.exe" file that could be found on your PC in the Acronis Privacy Expert Suite installation folder. For example, "C:\Program Files\Acronis\PrivacyExpert\mdac.exe Acronis Privacy Expert Suite also supports the Microsoft Installer utility (msiexec.exe) with all its commands. 1.2 Recovering Acronis Privacy Expert Suite If the Acronis Privacy Expert Suite ceased running or produces errors, its files might be corrupted. To repair this problem, you first have to recover the program. To do this run the Acronis Privacy Expert Suite installer again. It will detect Acronis Privacy Expert Suite on your computer and will ask you if you want to repair or remove it. 1.3 Acronis Privacy Expert Suite extracting Advanced users may save the .msi (Microsoft Installer) file needed for the installation of Acronis Privacy Expert Suite on a local or network drive for the further manual installation of the program. To do this: 1. In the install menu, right click on the Install Acronis Privacy Expert Suite and select Extract 2. Select the location where you want to save the setup file and press the Save button 3. The following .msi file will be extracted: AcronisPrivacyExpert.msi Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 13 Installing Acronis Privacy Expert Suite 1.4 Removing the software To remove Acronis Privacy Expert Suite from your PC, select Start Settings Control Panel Add or Remove Programs Acronis Privacy Expert Suite Remove. You will see a dialog to confirm the program removal. Click Yes to confirm and Acronis Privacy Expert Suite will be completely removed. You may have to reboot your computer afterwards to complete the task. 14 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 Working with Acronis Privacy Expert Suite Chapter 2. Working with Acronis Privacy Expert Suite 2.1 Getting started The Acronis Privacy Expert Suite user interface features standard Windows XP icon graphical user interface (GUI) elements. 2.2 Working in the main program window Work takes place in the main program window that is invoked after the suite is All programs Acronis PrivacyExpert launched by selecting Start Acronis Privacy Expert Suite or double-clicking the respective desktop shortcut. Acronis Privacy Expert Suite main window Users can choose between two window layouts. By default, the program offers the standard Category View traditional for Windows XP, in which all functional elements are grouped by their category. If needed, a user can switch to the Classic View that is more familiar to users of previous versions of Acronis Privacy Expert Suite. To do this, select View settings Switch to classic view. In the main program window, you will see two major groups of PC cleaning tools. The Malicious software group includes: Malicious Software Removal ­ removes malware, including applications and spyware that threaten information confidentiality by operating without the user's knowledge. The Privacy group includes: Internet Clean-up ­ completely removes traces of Internet and e-mail usage. Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 15 Working with Acronis Privacy Expert Suite System Clean-up ­ guaranteed to clean Windows components of any traces of user work. Application Traces Clean-up ­ removes traces of application usage. My Privacy Tools ­ provides additional means of enforcing user data confidentiality, Acronis Drive Cleanser that completely clean up user hard disk without the possibility of recovering information (see 0«Options Acronis Drive Cleanser»). Use Go back, Go forward and Home Toolbar buttons to switch between categories and to return to the main program window. You can also return to the main program window using Other categories Sidebar button. 2.3 Basic operation principles In Acronis Privacy Expert Suite, the primary operations are performed using user-friendly wizards: Malicious Software Wizard ­ removes unwanted malware and spyware System Clean-up Wizard ­ completely cleans Windows components of traces of user work, including temporary files, recently used files list, file search string, Windows Recycle Bin, etc Internet Clean-up Wizard ­ quickly removes traces of Internet and e-mail usage Application Traces Clean-up Wizard ­ removes traces of application usage. All wizards are under user control. Using wizards, you can clean either the entire category or any of its components. If you need to: Check your PC for malicious software and remove it if found, select Malicious Software Removal in the Malicious software group in the main program window Remove all traces of your work on the Internet and e-mail, select Internet Clean-up in the Privacy group in the main program window Clean Windows components of any traces of user work, select System Clean-up in the Privacy group in the main program window Remove application usage traces from your PC, select Application Traces Clean-up in the Privacy group in the main program window Additionally, the My Privacy Tools category offers you a number of extra PC clean-up and protection tools Block unwanted pop-ups that appear when you load certain Web sites, use Acronis Pop-up Blocker (from your Internet Explorer session). Clean up the swap file, run Paging File Cleaner 16 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 Working with Acronis Privacy Expert Suite Securely remove data in the selected partition and/or disk, run Acronis Drive Cleanser Remove selected files or folders, so they can't be recovered, run File Shredder For more information on wizard usage and settings, see the respective chapters of this guide. 2.4 Acronis Privacy Expert Suite options If you regularly use Acronis Privacy Expert Suite, you can provide custom preferences for typical situations. The Options window can be invoked in different ways: From the sidebar of the Acronis Privacy Expert Suite main window From Settings of the main menu By clicking the Options icon on the Toolbar 2.4.1 General options The General section contains the following items: Start Clean-up/Removal Wizard ­ if you flag this item, Acronis Privacy Expert Suite will ask each time before it runs the clean-up wizard for the given component or the entire category. Otherwise, the clean-up will be performed automatically without user confirmation. Show Summary ­ if you flag this item, the program will show you the clean-up summary after each session. Treat shortcuts as separate files ­ if you flag this item, the shortcut target will be left untouched. Otherwise, target files will be deleted along with the shortcuts. 2.4.2 Clean-up Options In the Clean-up Options group, you can set the common data destruction method that will be used by default for any PC clean-up operation, independently of category. In this section, you will see all data destruction methods available in Acronis Privacy Expert Suite by clicking your mouse on the drop-down list in the righthand part of the editor. If you need to ensure: maximum security while destroying files, select Peter Gutmann's method (35 data destruction cycles), but please keep in mind that this method requires the greatest amount of time to complete the task mid-level security at an average speed of clean-up, select VSITR or Bruce Schneier's method (seven data destruction cycles) Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 17 Working with Acronis Privacy Expert Suite fast PC clean-up with limited security in mind, select any methods that overwrite in a single pass, two passes or three passes If you haven't set the common data destruction method yourself, Acronis Privacy Expert Suite will default to the most popular and generally accepted one: U.S. Standard, DoD 5220.22-M algorithm (See detailed information in Appendix A«Hard Disk Wiping methods»). 2.4.3 Scheduled tasks The scheduled clean-up (see section 0 «Scheduling tasks») might lead to errors if data to be deleted is used by other programs. You can set up Acronis Privacy Expert Suite for such situations by selecting from the following variants: Ignore Retry Cancel Ask user 2.4.4 Explorer enhancements Acronis Privacy Expert Suite provides an easy way to delete files quickly and clean up folders through the Windows Explorer context menu. To enable these options and to add the context menu commands, mark the Enable Explorer Enhancements check-box. The context menu also allows you to clean up the Windows Recycle Bin securely. For that matter, clean-up preferences can not only include the data destruction method, but also the destruction method wildcard. Scheduling tasks Each PC clean-up variant of Acronis Privacy Expert Suite can be executed either manually or automatically as scheduled. Having set PC clean-up as a daily procedure to be performed, for example, at the end of a workday before powering off the PC, you can be sure that all evidence of your PC and Internet activity will be removed each day. Acronis Privacy Expert Suite features a built-in scheduler. 2.4.5 Invoking the scheduler To set up the clean-up schedule, click the Schedule task sidebar button in the Acronis Privacy Expert Suite main window. Having invoked the Scheduler, you will need to select a clean-up variant to perform at the selected time. 18 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 Working with Acronis Privacy Expert Suite You can: Schedule any Quick Task to perform complete or particular clean-up, including Entire PC Clean-up, Malicious software Removal, Internet Clean-up, System Clean-up and Application Traces Clean-up Schedule automatic clean-up of any PC components Scheduler 2.4.6 Scheduled tasks preferences Having selected the clean-up variant, you will need to set its schedule: You can select the following variants of automatic clean-up launch: Do not start automatically Daily, according to the schedule with the ability to select only workdays or once every few days Weekly, according to the schedule with the ability to select particular days, such as Tuesday and Friday, or once every two or three weeks, etc Monthly, according to the schedule on the time and day set; The suite supports clean-up on the (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday), for example One time only, at a specific time (hours:minutes) on a particular day (month/day/year) Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005 19 Working with Acronis Privacy Expert Suite When my computer starts When I log on When my computer shuts down When I log off Having selected any variant, click Next to set additional parameters on the second wizard page. The scheduled clean-up might lead to errors if data to be deleted is used by other programs. You can set up Acronis Privacy Expert Suite for such situations. See section Global settings Scheduled tasks. 2.5 Using the Log The Log keeps track of all actions performed by Acronis Privacy Expert Suite. It can provide you with a complete history and reasons for any problems that have occurred. Log view window Log settings enables you to keep track with different degrees of detail. You can select one of the following variants: Everything Important information ­ error and malware messages 20 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005