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You may not consider clearing the
windows paging file as a necessary part of your security
housekeeping. Ok it can add quite a few seconds to your final
shutdown time, but it doesn't need to be done on a regular basis
and you can always disable the option as and when you want.
But why clear the paging file you
may ask. Well the simple answer is security. It is not unknown
for a third party software application to temporarily store
unencrypted information such as passwords or other sensitive
material in memory. Obviously the way Windows uses virtual
memory it is possible for this information to end up in the
paging file.
There are two ways of clearing the paging file.
On involves Group Policy and the other the Windows registry. If
Group Policy is not available on your version of Vista then
proceed to Method Two.
Method One
1/ Click Start button and in the Search dialogue
box type:
gpedit.msc.
2/
When in group policy window proceed as follows:
3/
Click the > button next to Computer Configuration. This will
expand the menu
4/
Click the > next to the Windows settings option. Again the menu
will expand
5/
Next click the > next to Security settings. The menu will expand
again
6/
Now click the > next to Local Policies. The menu will expand
again
7/
Now click on the Security Options
8/
The right hand pane of group policies will fill with options
9/
Scroll down to 'Shutdowns; Clear virtual memory page file'
10/
Now right click on this option and, from the menu that appears
select Properties
11/
In properties click on the radio button marked 'Enabled'
12/
Now click OK
13/
Finally close group policies
Method Two
1/ Click Start button, followed
by All Programs, Accessories and then Click the Run option.
2/ In the Run dialog box type:
Regedit
3/ User Account Control (UAC)
will ask permission to open Regedit. If you are the
administrator, then Click the Continue button. If you are not
the administrator, then you will need to ask the administrator
for the administrator credentials
4/In the Registry Editor Window
navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
Manager\Memory Management.
5/ In the list that appears on
the right of the Registry window look for the Value Name:
ClearPageFileAtShutdown
6/ If the Value does not exist
Right Click on the Memory Managment key and, from the drop down
menu select New
7/ When you click New another
drop down menu will appear. Click DWORD Value
8/ You should now see a box with
the words New Value#1.
9/ Right click on this box and
select Rename
10/ In the rename box Type:
ClearPageFileAtShutdown
11/ After you have renamed the
value, right click on it again and select Modify
12/ Change the Value to 1
13/ The registry entry should now
look like this: ClearPageFileAtShutdown REG_WORD
0x00000001 (1)
14/ The changes will not come
into effect until you have restarted your computer
15/ To disable the feature just
reset the Value to 0
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