Ease of Use:  

BCWipe is a little more difficult to use because of how arduous of a process it is to get anything done using the program.  You have to click, click and click some more before you get to where you want to go.  Other programs have all their features available in at least one convenient window.  However, once you find what you need, getting the job done is the easiest part of the whole experience.  If only getting there was half as easy.

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:  

As we stated earlier, BCWipe is broken into two different functions from a dialog box that pops up when you open the program:  BCWipe Task Manager and Activate Transparent Wiping.  The task manager function is helpful because it gives you greater control over the program's tasks.  You can create tasks to Delete with Wiping, Wipe Free Space, Wipe Special folders contents,  Wipe Local History and Transparent Wiping. 

Delete with Wiping is the same as Transparent Wiping except you have manually choose what files or folders you want to wipe rather than having the program do the job for you when you delete them.  Wipe Free Space clears the free and hidden areas of your hard drive to give you more space and wipe anything that might be hiding away.  Wipe Special folders contents allows you to delete traces generated by your internet browsers, Windows and My Recycle Bin.  Wipe local history gives you the opportunity to remove references to particular kinds of files. 

A lot of BCWipe's glory comes from its seemingly complex interface.  However, what their interface is masking is disappointing trace removal capabilities.  If less space was used on the interface, the program could focus on the task at hand, but it falls short because it's too focused on appearances.

If you want to make the files you created during last tax season using Turbo Tax, this program will definitely get the job done.  But when it comes to removing traces of your internet activity, BCWipe falls a little short.

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 good privacy software 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.