Selling my computer

I have bought a new computer and I am selling my old laptop to a friend of mine. I don't want to restore factory settings because alot of applications I have she wants to keep on the computer. How do I delete all my passwords that are stored in the computer and generally protect my security so I can give her the computer?

Thanks for any help!!!

 

No good way to do what you want, the only way to protect yourself is to either do a Factory restore, or install the OS clean.

too much of your personal data is stored in too many places in the OS.

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Factory restore would be perfect!

 

antech, Your advice doesn't meet the needs of the poster. There's software on the computer they want to keep. That would obviously be lost if they did a factory restore.

 

Dear haysp,
Welcome to techguy! One solution to your sit. of "i wanna eat my cake but save a part of it for my friend" could be--- if you can download the"software applications" which your friend wants onto an Usb Flash. Then you can download the excellent "East-Tec Eraser 2009" and wipe your hard drive once or "thrice"(that's what they do in the US Navy) or use the Gutman method where" A maximum security (but slow) 35 pass sanitize method, based on Peter Gutmann's paper "Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory". The method is designed to erase data regardless of the disk raw encoding. It effectively removes the magnetic remnants from disk, preventing hardware recovery tools from restoring any data. NOTE: This method stops both software and hardware recovery tools". Best wishes!

 

This won't work for most Windows apps which alter the registry when installed.

Anyway, the original poster has to think back on what he has on his PC and what needs to be scrubbed., I have given away two PC's with plenty of applications resident, but I never kept any sensitive passwords in my browser, and even if I did, it is very easy to delete them. If he details what he uses for email and browsing, it is not a big deal to clear out the personal info.

There are a number of install codes involved with the software applications, but he is giving those away, so why care about those?

Yes, it is feasible for someone to use recovery software and retrieve files that were deleted, but that ain't going to happen with civilians.. And if that is a concern, there are ways to make it not happen. Turn off system restore first. Then use a program like Eraser from sourceforge to erase all the free space.

 

Dear antimoth,
I suggest you read this article (direct from Microsoft),before jumping the gun! These are days when even a whole Windows 7 OS can be downloaded and re-installed onto a lap using a USB Flash Drive! Reference site : http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/installing-windows-7-on-a-netbook

I can eek out every password,however encrypted you have,with " Asterisk Key"!