File Cleaning With Cipher.exe, Getting rid of deleted data

Question

I recently discovered there's a command line utility called CIPHER.EXE that is mostly used to encrypt and decrypt data. In XP, MS added a /w flag that supposedly cleans out data on the hard drive that has been "deleted" but is actually still there. I would like to use it to permanently delete a program i install, but I am a little nervous about doing so without hearing from others. There's not much documentation available on it.

Supposedly, I can simply enter

cipher /w:c:

but when it go tocommand prompt it doesn't work it says 'cipher' is not reconized as an internal or external command, operable program, or batch file.

what could be wrong

Answer 1

This knowledge base article says that it works only with Windows 2000. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298009 There are other tools available like Acronis Drive Cleanser or Norton Wipe Info and there are some free tools available. You can not uninstall programs using these tools. You can only securely delete files. Use windows Add/Remove Programs snap in to remove the program and then use one of these programs to wipe out the free space on the drive.