Context-Shredder is a small Windows application using which we can securely erase files from the hard disc drive so that they cannot be recovered later. It is really useful when we have to get rid of some of the private files that we do not want to be recovered by any data recovery software or by a data recovery professional.
After you have installed it on your Windows PC, it creates two desktop shortcuts – one is for launching the Context-Shredder and another shortcut launches the Erase Wizard which is a different user interface of the same application. The wizard user interface takes you from one step to another helping you choose the correct options when it comes to erasing the files.
When you launch Erase Wizard, it shows you all the drives and their folders that you can select. Then you can choose what you want to do with these selected folders using the tools given in the sidebar. We can create a new shredding job, we can launch Explorer, we can launch the command prompt, we can launch the Context-Shredder and more.
In the Context-Shredder, we get access to the secure erase methods that we can choose in order to shred the files. By default, it uses US DoD erase method and repeats it three times. In its window, we have shortcut buttons for quickly shredding files related to Microsoft Internet Explorer, Windows File Explorer, Recycle Bin, Temporary Files, and Reboot files. Using the same tool, we can erase all the files on a drive.
In the settings for Context-Shredder, we can choose the secure erase method, whether to remove empty folders, whether to secure erase sub-folders, and whether to remove locked files upon reboot. This tool removes the entries of the shredded files from the MFT which makes it impossible to search for deleted files using any data recovery tools.
You can download Context-Shredder from http://orion-tools.bplaced.net/engshredder.html.