Do you ever feel like the clutter in your house has a life on its own ? It constantly claims more and more space.
Of course, junk can’t grow on its own, so that means someone is adding more stuff to your closets, garage, etc. All this happens until a good spring cleaning clears the clutter.
The difference between your closets at home and your computer is that your PC can add junk and clutter by itself. Even if you do nothing relating to this matter, information is still stored.
Programs create log files, which are bits of information that are moved on your hard drive. When you use your computer these logs note your popular programs and files, download information, etc.
Cookies are basically small text files written by a web browser that contain information about your interaction with the virtual world. The information stored is formed mostly out of login information, and by saving them it becomes easier to log into an online site. Even though most cookies are benign, they can impact your privacy by opening access doors into the other bits of information you have stored on your PC.
In this article, we will explore the best apps that allow you to easily and thoroughly clear up any cookies from your browser.
At the end of the article you will also find a way to clear cookies manually depending on the browser you’re using – Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera.
- 1
CCleaner
CCleaner is one of the most well known apps when it comes to computer optimization and includes powerful tools that clean your history and cookies files with one click.
After you installed CCleaner on your PC, you can select the areas to clean and then hit Analyze to see how much space can be freed up. All you need to do after this is click Run Cleaner button to permanently remove everything that CCleaner found.
We recommend you to always double check the list found in CCleaner after analyzing your PC, because you might want to keep some cookies like stored browser passwords. If you are not sure what a file is, it’s better to keep it in order to be safe.
One of the best features of CCleaner is the automatic clean-up of your browser cookies, trackers, internet history, download history, cache and it can even delete individual session activity.
In addition to the cleaner function, CCleaner has two other major features :
- Registry cleaner – Finds and fixes registry errors
- Tool management – program uninstaller, startup program editor, browser plug-ins, etc.
You might want to avoid the buttons System Restore and Drive Wiper, unless you’re absolutely sure what you’re doing.
— RELATED: 6 of the best PC repair and optimizer software for 2018
- 2
SecureClean
SecureClean is a powerful app that allows you to permanently erase temporary, cached, cookies and ”deleted” files regularly. You can do it once or create a schedule so it can automatically delete everything you don’t need.
Because of the personal data that is collected constantly on your PC in cookie files, personal documents, browsing histories, passwords, etc. you need a reliable application that can secure your PC.
SecureClean uses government-grade wiping technology that ensures that your data is unrecoverable, even with the most sophisticated tools. Beyond the need to protect your privacy, another reason for which you want to delete cookies and other stored information is because, in time, they clutter the system and slow it down.
By using this program you can also white list cookies you don’t want deleted (log-in info) so that it skips them when the cleaning process is started.
SecureClean can completely erase unused files and information including :
- Personally identifying information
- Credit card information
- Online banking information
- Deleted email messages
- Browsing history
- Temporary internet files
- Internet cookies
— RELATED: 5 of the best optimization software for Windows 7 PCs
- 3
Cookienator 2.5
Cookienator is a great tool that allows you to remain anonymous from search engines like Google and other notorious web-usage trackers such as Doubleclick or Omniture.
With a simple user-interface and, Cookienator is designed to automatically skip the important cookies, and delete only those who pose a risk to your privacy.
Cookienator is one of the most lightweight options presented in this article. It is a single executable files that you install on your computer and once run, it will show you how many cookies it would like to remove. It will also not run in the background constantly, but only for a few seconds when you start up your PC.
This app is configured to clean up crumbs left on your computer by sites like: Google, AOL, Yahoo, MSN, etc but this list can be easily edited by editing the filters.
Like all the other cookies exterminator it is recommended you close your browser/s before running Cookienator, so it can gain access to all the files stored.
— RELATED: How to delete temporary files using Disk Cleanup on Windows 10, 8, 7
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Bleachbit
This program is a quick and convenient alternative to CCLeaner. Bleachbit is open source and users are also allowed to make their own contributions and fix any bugs.
Bleachbit is simpler than CCleaner but this works in it’s advantage because of the small zise of the program. There is also a portable version available for those of you looking to build a USB toolkit.
Key features include:
- Support for a massive range of programs
- Quick and simple everyday maintenance tasks
- Deep scan options – in depth analysis of your system files
- Shred option – deletes unwanted files securely by overwriting them several times
- Free of charge
- Command line interface for scripting and automation
- Frequent software updates with new features
— RELATED: The 12 best tools to delete junk files from your Windows 10 PC
- 5
Cookie Monster 3.47
This app is a manager fo the cookies created by most Windows browsers: IE, Firefox, Google Chrome, Mozilla, etc.
Cookies Monster allows you to set a list with the cookies that you want to protect and then it will delete the remaining ones with just one mouse click.
It can also detect the cookies from the sites included in your bookmarks.
Conclusion
The list presented in this article gives you a wide range of options that allow you to protect your privacy.
Included in this list, you can find software options that are light-weight and offer singular cookie deletion features or more complex programs that allow you to manage your online security at a professional level.
If you’ve got any suggestions or comments, feel free to use the comment section below.
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