Ease of Use:  

BCWipe’s main interface is extremely streamlined and simplistic, as you can see from the screenshots, which makes it easy to figure out. It has few options, for example some programs have different setting for Windows, Internet, email, chat and MS Office activities. This software pretty much just asks you what you want to be wiped (file/folder, free space, swap space, hibernation files or special folders) and then makes it possible.

However, we would have like to see a more comprehensive user interface. For example the Crypto Swap has to be accessed separately from the task manager, and in addition a new window pops up for everything you do, like scheduling or adding tasks. A single interactive interface that accesses everything would have been nice to see. Also, even though “temporary files” covers many things it would have been nice to see categories broken down, such as into things like chat conversations, downloaded audio, streaming video files and so on; If for nothing else, to give the user the reassurance that these items are completely erased so they don’t have to worry.

What is extremely easy to do with this software is erasing an entire hard disk; we think this could be tremendously useful to perform before selling or gifting a computer. We also think this software would be handy on public computers, since it can be set to erase things at start up or shut down easily, so this will make the computer clean and safe between multiple users.
 

Ease of Installation/Setup:  

We downloaded this software over the Internet and had it running and erasing in a matter of minutes. Installing and configuring the settings is easy. However, we would have liked to see it more condensed. For example, it installed an about section, a help file, the crypto swap tool, the task manager and the read me file separately.

Privacy Effectiveness:  

BCWipe offers some powerful encryption abilities. In the task manager you can set wipes to up to 35 passes. It gives you a choice of U.S DoD 5200.28 STD, Peter Gutmann or a single pass. You can also edit the passing scheme; it can be set to swipe by random byte pattern or by a set pattern. In addition, it has a unique tool called a Hexadecimal File Viewer; this tool will allow you to view wiped files to ensure that they are completely unrecognizable.

The Crypto Swap tool can erase or encrypt swap files using Rijndael 256-bit, Blowfish 448-bit, GOST 28147-89 256-bit or Twofish 256-bit key encryption algorithms. We can’t imagine anyone needing encryption algorithms any more powerful than this.

Feature Set:  

We looked at the BCWipe for Windows version, though they also offer a Unix version and a PD version that is designed for wiping a large number of computers (for example within a large company before computers are re-purposed or liquidated). This privacy software embeds itself in Windows and can be accessed through Explorer, the context (right click) menu or from a command-line prompt.

BCWipe for Windows can easily wipe files, folders, swap files, hibernation files, temporary files, favorites, the cache, recycle bins and more. It can also erase an entire hard drive. And furthermore, it has the ability to schedule tasks once, by the day, week, and month, or at startup or before shut down.

As mentioned above, we would like to see it have the ability to be set to erase specific items, for example if it gave you the choice to tell it to erase all MSN Messenger, Yahoo, Google Talk, ICQ or AIM chat conversations.
 

Help/Documentation:  

This privacy software comes with embedded support and Jetico posts information online. Online you can find FAQs and you can submit an email for support. They are located in Finland and their posted phone/fax numbers are not toll-free numbers. We really would have liked to see more support options like chat support, a toll-free number or at least business hours posted.

The embedded support is fairly comprehensive and did prove useful, yet many of the screenshots and help items appeared to relate to previous versions.

We think BCWipe is a good tool for encrypting swap files and erasing selected files/folders, special folders, hibernation files and hard drives. However, we think some of our other higher ranked products are better at pinpointing specific Internet activities and are easier to use as far as configuring very specific items for deletion. We liked the encryption abilities that if offers though, which is notably its strong point. BCWipe is good at what it does, but is a bit limited in scope and utility.