Cleaning up clearing out a PC before recycling

[sallan29]

I am replacing my pc but as it is still working reasonably well my friends son would like it. Can you tell me how best to clear out all the stored and hidden info thats on it. I am in the process of removing the files, docs and photos that I want to keep but am worried about all the automatic logins and passwords etc.

Computer is Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4CPU with windows XP

[sallan29]

I have everything I need off the PC now, would like to pass it on before Christmas. Would be grateful for suggestions on how to proceed.

[liljim]

Hi sallan,
Sorry for the late reply. Depending on the browser you use, clearing things out is fairly simple. If you only used Internet Explorer you can open a page and click Tools>Internet Options. This will open a window and in it you will see a "Browsing history" section. Click the delete button and in the next window you will want to tick all the boxes and click delete. If any other browsers were used, i would need to know which and what version as they differ quite a bit.

I typical disk cleanup to remove and old temp files or downloaded programs files would also help but the web browser is where any website passwords would lurk. Clear those and send it on its way.

[sallan29]

Thanks for that, we use Firefox. I have cleared the history and done a disk cleanup and updated and run the virus protection. Hopefully that is it ready to pass on. Thanks for you help.

[liljim]

In firefox you need to open a page and go to tools>Options>Security> saved passwords>remove all