Deleting search history and list of files you have seen

[humananimal]

1. All browsers I know of has a ‘private mode’ where you use it normally, but when the browser is closed all the search history is removed. So other users can’t find it.
2. Windows (I use nr. 10) keeps a list of former opened files on your computer. I normally have all my photos scrambled, but Windows has a list og all the file names, and even if they are removed, then the file names could be revealing when nosy people uses the computer.
I have an icon with a link to this list and can delete them when I want.
The list is here : C:\users\ Username \ appdata\ roaming\ microsoft\ windows\ recent
3. As mentioned by many - use VPN so your IP is not easy found.

 

[pes]

Unless your vpn encrypts DNS requests, it is one of the things that is sent in plain text. So your vpn provider knows exactly which pages you visit.
Try it yourself:
sudo tcpdump -vv -x -X -s 1500 -i (your network interface name) 'port 53'

Different programs can keep their own separate recent files history.
Different programs generate thumbnails for loaded photos which are stored in different locations.
You can easily start a disk wide search for all image files. This will find all your forgotten thumbnails and all your regular image files.
You can easily perform a photo recovery that will find deleted files. Unless they have been overwritten.

Keep your zoo stuff in encrypted containers like VeraCrypt.
Use a separate account on your computer for this stuff.
Ideally use something like Tails linux that does not write anything permanently to any disk.

 

[humananimal]

Unless your vpn encrypts DNS requests, it is one of the things that is sent in plain text. So your vpn provider knows exactly which pages you visit.
Try it yourself:
sudo tcpdump -vv -x -X -s 1500 -i (your network interface name) 'port 53'

Different programs can keep their own separate recent files history.
Different programs generate thumbnails for loaded photos which are stored in different locations.
You can easily start a disk wide search for all image files. This will find all your forgotten thumbnails and all your regular image files.
You can easily perform a photo recovery that will find deleted files. Unless they have been overwritten.

Keep your zoo stuff in encrypted containers like VeraCrypt.
Use a separate account on your computer for this stuff.
Ideally use something like Tails linux that does not write anything permanently to any disk.

I am aware that deleted files is not deleted as such.
It can be compared to deleting something in the register of a book, but the text is still there.

My writing was to prevent another simple user from finding something about your interest.
You write something about checking my VPN.
Have never used sudo, and as far I can find it is a program for Unix or Linux.
I mostly use iPad and sometimes my Windows10 PC.
And by the way, we are all advised not to run programs / links that is not known.
So I dare not.

 

[pes]

Have never used sudo, and as far I can find it is a program for Unix or Linux.

It is a linux command. Sudo is a linux specific command used to grant another program administrator privileges.
In your case you would have to find tcpdump version for windows and adapt the command to work on windows. Tcpdump is the program that actually does the work in the command, it prints out what is going on on your network. In this example it is set to print dns communication on port 53.
When you run this command and then open your browser and go to some page, it would print out the dns query. And since dns communication on port 53 which is default on most if not all PCs is not encrypted, you would see the url printed by tcpdump.
This could be adapted to look for dns queries on the vpn network too to see whether dns there is encrypted. But since I do not use vpns but tor, this example is for regular network.