• Erase the Trash: Double-click on the Permanent Eraser icon, and it will erase the contents of your Trash.
• Erase selected files: Select the files to delete in the Finder, and drag them onto the Permanent Eraser icon. Permanent Eraser will then only erase those specific files.
• Erase optical discs: Select a rewritable optical disc (CD-RW or DVD-RW) and drag it onto the Permanent Eraser icon to completely write over the disc's data.

• Security - The Secure Empty Trash feature uses the US DoD method of overwriting files 7 times, whereas Permanent Eraser uses the Gutmann Method which uses a special pattern to overwrite files 35 times.
• Tracking - Permanent Eraser shows the real-time progress of the files while they are being erased, but the Mac Finder's progress bar updates only after an entire file has been deleted.
• Flexibility - Mac OS X only securely erases files that are in the Trash, but Permanent Eraser can erase individual files and rewritable discs as well as the files in the Trash.

Version 2.2 (and later) of Permanent Eraser runs natively on Intel and PowerPC based Macs.

Yes. This was a new feature introduced with Permanent Eraser 2.3.

Yes, resource forks are erased.

Yes, aliases can be erased if they are in the Trash.

Yes, before the file is unlinked, the original file name is renamed with a random set of characters to make it even more difficult to discover the former name of the file.

Permanent Eraser 2.2.3 introduced a feature where a dialog box would appear once the application had launched. This warning gives the user the option to either quit or continue with the program. To prevent this warning from appearing, hold down the Option key when launching Permanent Eraser.

To make this setting permanent, open up the Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and type:
defaults write com.edenwaith.permanenteraser WarnBeforeErasing -bool NO

At this time, Permanent Eraser cannot shred the free space on a disk. If you have Mac OS 10.4 or later, you can use Disk Utility to erase the free space on your drives.

No. Permanent Eraser has been developed to run on Mac OS X only. If you need a utility to erase files on Mac OS 9 (or earlier), try Burn.

• An alias can only be deleted if it is in the Trash. Otherwise, trying to delete an alias will delete the original file, but not the alias.
• Some files not owned by the current user may not be able to be deleted. You will be warned if a file cannot be deleted.
• If the Alert dialog does not appear when Permanent Eraser is started, erase the the preference file located at ~/Library/Preferences/com.edenwaith.permanenteraser.plist .