05. 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:

Click Start button.
Next Click Run
In the Run dialog box type: Regedit.
In the Registry Editor Window navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management.
In the list that appears on the right of the Registry window look for the Value Name: ClearPageFileAtShutdown.
If the Value does not exist Right Click on the Memory Management key and, from the drop down menu select New.
When you click New another drop down menu will appear. Click DWORD Value.
You should now see a box with the wordsNew Value#1.
Right click on this box and select Rename.
In the rename box Type: ClearPageFileAtShutdown
After you have renamed the value, right click on it again and select Modify.
Change the Value to 1.
The registry entry should now look like this: ClearPageFileAtShutdown REG_WORD 0x00000001 (1).
The changes will not come into effect until you have re-started your computer.
To disable the feature just re-set the Value to 0.