EraserDrop Portable 2.1 Released by PortableApps.com

Submitted by wraithdu on October 13, 2009 - 10:04am

Eraser logoEraserDrop Portable 2.1 has been released by PortableApps.com. EraserDrop Portable is an easy-to-use secure data removal tool. It is a drop target (a floating icon on your desktop) that you can drop files onto to quickly erase them so they can not be recovered. EraserDrop does away with the standard Eraser Portable interface so you can easily delete files on the go. It's packaged in PortableApps.com Format so it can easily integrate with the PortableApps.com Suite. And it's open source and completely free.

Read on for more details...

Features

ScreenshotEraserDrop's target accepts any combination of files and folders. The target can be moved about the screen by holding the LEFT SHIFT key, LEFT-CLICKING the target, and dragging. The window position is saved, but will be corrected if it goes beyond screen boundaries - ie if you move from a screen with a high resolution to one with a lower resolution.

The image for the drop target can be changed on-the-fly. Simply choose a PNG graphic you like, place it in the Data\images directory, and select the image from the Open File dialog. The window will be sized accordingly. Transparency is supported!

Hide the target by right-clicking and choose 'Hide', or press the hotkey. To bring it back, click the tray icon or use the hotkey (default is unset). The hotkey can be defined from the context menu. See the readme for details.

EraserDrop also includes the ability to wipe the Recycle Bin and wipe drive free space. Right-click and use the 'Tasks' submenu.

Flash Drive Note: Most modern flash drives use wear leveling to spread write operations out over a device. This interferes with EraserDrop's (and other secure deletion utilities) ability to wipe single files. Wiping an entire drive or erasing a file and then wiping free space should still work securely, though it will put additional wear on your drive.

PortableApps.com Installer / PortableApps.com Format

EraserDrop Portable is packaged in a PortableApps.com Installer so it will automatically detect an existing PortableApps.com installation when your drive is plugged in. And it's in PortableApps.com Format, so it automatically works with the PortableApps.com Suite including the Menu and Backup Utility.

Download

EraserDrop Portable is available for immediate download from the EraserDrop Portable homepage. Get it today!

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Comments

John T. Haller's picture

John T. Haller

October 13, 2009 - 10:05am

Thanks for all your work on this one, Erik. I know it was a long time coming. So congratulations on your first public release!

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

OliverK's picture

OliverK

October 13, 2009 - 11:34am

Congrats wraithdu! Glad to see some of your work finally released and recognized.

Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world

Simeon's picture

Simeon

October 13, 2009 - 12:03pm

I recently rediscovered this and use it a lot!

"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate

brodiemac

October 13, 2009 - 12:50pm

So is this intended as a replacement for Erasure Portable or as a compliment to it?

Simeon's picture

Simeon

October 13, 2009 - 12:53pm

Eraser still has its advantages but this one has most of them too and sometimes I find it nice if I dont have to start Eraser but can just drop my files onto the Icon.

"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate

John T. Haller's picture

John T. Haller

October 13, 2009 - 12:53pm

Either way is fine. Some people will prefer the full interface of Eraser. Some will prefer the easy to use nature of EraserDrop.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Patrick Patience

October 13, 2009 - 1:06pm

Awesome work, wraithdu. This is a handy little app, glad to finally see it out the door. Smile

computerfreaker's picture

computerfreaker

October 13, 2009 - 2:13pm

Congratulations on your first release, wraithdu!
I know you waited a LONG time for this... enjoy the moment, my friend! Smile

Best wishes...

"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."

Nighted

October 14, 2009 - 4:48pm

I've been using Freeraser. This looks similar so I'll give i a try! Hopefully it's a bit faster.

John T. Haller's picture

John T. Haller

October 14, 2009 - 4:59pm

Functionally it's a bit more feature-rich as it has two additional destruction methods, including a more-secure DoD method. Additionally, it's open source and based on the very popular (and well-tested) Eraser, which is a huge plus with security tools.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

cardshack

October 20, 2009 - 12:29pm

this doesn't check out very well with VirusTotal

i certainly trust this site and what is offered here,
just curious why the poor showing with EraserDrop

spg SCOTT's picture

spg SCOTT

October 20, 2009 - 2:23pm

wraithdu**NOTE: VirusTotal/Jotti may show a few warnings due to the AutoIt source of this application. These false positives can be safely ignored.

Found in opening post: https://portableapps.com/node/20748

Also: https://portableapps.com/support#false_positive

BTW: Congrats wraithdu Biggrin

“There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!”Richard Feynman

Installater

October 20, 2009 - 5:44pm

Line -1:

Error: Subscript used with non-Array variable

XP Pro MCE SP3 w/amd cpu running sharpe shell (explorer.exe is NOT running)
be nice to see what it can do, or rather undo.
Until then, migale eraser is the schnitz for portable data deletion.

wraithdu

October 22, 2009 - 11:39pm

I'll take a look. However I'm not officially supporting 3rd party shell replacements. They mess with too many things when you have an application interacting with the desktop / explorer.

dragonmage

January 22, 2010 - 10:14am

Hey wraithdu, congrats on getting your app made official. Thanks for all the hard work on it. I know you said you didn't want to do anything else with the gui, but I see you made it flash while working. Anyways I had an idea that I hope is simple enough to implement that you will consider it. Would it be possible to use 2 images, one as a background that does not flash and one on top of it that does flash?

Here's a little demonstration of the effect I'm going for http://tinyurl.com/ycrov9m I'm using Rainmeter to provide the background and just using the icon image as the EDP image. Please excuse the video quality, I just installed CamStudio to make this and haven't learned the options yet.

I think we could get some pretty nice skins going with this little addition. I was thinking you just require the flashing image to have the same name as the main image with _flash appended.

example.png
example_flash.png

If example_flash.png didn't exist then it would just flash example.png.

Do you think this is a good idea? I'm sure it would be popular.

EDIT: 01.22.10

I also noticed to hide EDP you have to rightclick the tray icon and select Hide, but to unhide you can just leftclick the tray icon. Could you make it so a leftclick on the tray icon will hide it if it is visible then unhide it if it is not?

You have the option to terminate all jobs, but I was wondering does Eraser have the ability to "pause" all jobs. If so maybe you could have a leftclick on the GUI pause/unpause the jobs. It really just kinda bugs me that leftclick on the interface does nothing. I always thought apps that require a modifier key to drag usually do so because the leftclick has an associated action and the modifier allows you to move the form without triggering the action. It just seems strange to have a modifier key to drag and a dead leftclick.

Debray6379

February 15, 2010 - 6:46pm

Hi, EraserDrop is a must have for me! I tried it once and now I'm lost without it!.
I would like to ask if it would be possible if eraserdrop could made into a docklet for rocketdock please? I use rocketdock as a portable app and I've always thought it would be great to have it as a docklet. No extra features just instead of the target on the desktop I would like to have it on my dock instead. thank you for you great work, I hope it can be done and keep up the awesome work.

dragonmage

February 24, 2010 - 1:11pm

I think that would probably increase the number of users dramatically. It could be used on all the various docks out there. I don't know if wraithdu knows the code language needed for making the dll, but it shouldn't be hard for someone who does to create such a docklet.

Debray6379

February 25, 2010 - 2:53am

Wraithdu says it cannot be done I have been trying to get it to work with SysStats but I couldn't code\script to save my left nut so I'm no judge there.

To quote wraithdu "I believe RocketDock just docks shortcuts (basically icons). Drag-and-drop on those works the same as drag-and-drop on an icon on your desktop.
EraserDrop is an entirely different animal, and is not an icon at all. There is no way to do what you want." End Quote

But hey if anyone can actually do it then pleeease do?! I'm sure it would be very popular.

Debray6379

February 25, 2010 - 10:51pm

So it could be done?

or would it be easier to make an eraser docklet instead?

I prefer EraserDrop at home, but at work our virus scanner automatically deletes the PAF file as it downloads. When run at work (previously downloaded) from the thumbdrive (TD) the scanner deletes the offending portion from the TD and I have to reinstall at home.

The name provided is 19.nsis

Detected as: Artemis!1E3CB879F87D

This happened a while ago and I expected someone to address this.

In the mean time I use EraserPortable, but again I prefer EraserDrop.

If this could be fixed, I would appreciate it.

Jim

John T. Haller's picture

John T. Haller

June 23, 2010 - 2:25pm

It's not something we can fix. It's a false positive on McAfee's end, which means there's nothing at all we can do about it.

It's very likely due to the fact that EraserDrop is written using AutoIT as the programming language, which often produces false positives. That's the reason why we no longer accept AutoIT-based apps for inclusion in the app directory.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Hi.

Can you add a "add to RecycleBin context menu" to your software?
It could be more usefull to start to empty Trash with EraserDrop by a single "right-click > Secure with EraserDrop".

Hope this will be included...

John T. Haller's picture

John T. Haller

August 22, 2010 - 5:43pm

It's been asked in the forums a couple times. The answer is no. Adding context menu icons doesn't work well with portable software as it will then lock the software open preventing safe drive removal. The only workaround is to then kill explorer.exe (start menu, taskbar, etc) to release it. Please refer to one of the forum topics if you'd like to discuss it further.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

mikedrichardson

September 15, 2010 - 10:04am

FYI: McAfee reports an infection from this app - Artemis!E4857B9E3DF5 (Trojan). I don't know if it is a false positive or real.

Mike Richardson