80. Clear Windows Paging File At Shutdown
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.
One 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 the 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.