How Do I 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.

To clear the file proceed as follows:

1/ Click Start button

2/ Next Click Run

3/ In the Run dialog box type: Regedit

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