Open Windows Command Prompt. An easy way to do this, is to press the Windows key (or the Start button) to bring up the Windows menu and search, then type “Command Prompt”.
It will not delete data that you still use, so be sure to delete the files you want to get rid of before running Cipher. Cipher will securely overwrite all the data in a specific drive or folder which has been deleted. Without permanently deleting it, the file could potentially be recovered at a later date.Ĭipher is a built-in secure detection tool that has been present in Windows since Windows XP was released and is available with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and 10. When you delete a file in Windows, all it really does, is delete an entry in the master file table that tells the computer where the actual file is stored.