text: how do i erase everything from my computer so nothing can be traced? i was given a laptop but the person who gave it to me forgot to delete his files. im sharing with my little brother so i dont want him to be able to find anything bad on it. so how do i delete everything thats not mine without messing up what is mine. for internet explorer, you can go and clean all the history from tools>internet options> clean history at the bottom. that will clear the web sites visited before.  for the files on the computer, you can hide them from its properties and don't show all files in folder options from control panel.  also you can create a new profile for your brother if you have windows xp and password protect your profile.