clearing pagefile on shutdown

one of XP tweaks is "clear pagefile on shutdown"
I know what pagefile for. BUT what are the benefits and/or advantages/disadvantages of clearing it. and why this function is not "ON" by default. Thank you

 

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the option actually writes zeros through pagefile.sys rather than doing a file delete. I believe it was a requirement for the OS, in order to meet one of the government's security testing criteria. It takes extra time on shutdown, though, as previously noted.

 

I can tell ya something, I read in a magazine where it said that one guy did this tweak and it increased his shutdown time by 2 minutes or so...but then his PC was only a P3 600MHz with 128MB RAM....

 

How to Clear the Windows Paging File at Shutdown.

 

Thank you all
as I mentioned I know what is page file used for. I dont want to play with its size. Leave Windows to handle this. it actually increases the shutdown time up to a minute not more than that(depend on speed of the processor ofcourse). BUT I still ask What is the gain of clearing the page file. In another way does it do harm if left uncleared/cleared. Thanks =)

 

It's like Ronjor said, it's a security/privacy concern. Someone could discover passwords, processes, private information, etc. by examining the pagefile.sys file on the harddrive. Now, the fact the pagefile.sys gets locked for access by the system and largely continually overwritten may mitigate the threat to some degree. However, I suppose it's possible for some kernel driver to pick up on the data in the file, but then again I suppose if the bad guys placed an executing kernel driver on your system then you would have bigger issues to worry about. I suppose, also, that the bad guys could pick up information from the file if they had physical access to the computer/drive, and booted off of MSDOS with NTFSDOS or some other type of utility. But, then once again, you probably have bigger issues to worry about if some bad guy has physical access to your drive/computer. The upshot... I wouldn't worry about it. Like I said, I think it was mainly a government testing requirement.

 

Actually, Windows writes to the page file in 1 & 0's, but it is not DOD complient. DOD is 7 writes or greater, but the higher you go you risk damaging the disk.

It's best to clear your page file if your PC is used by others or your just paranoid. However, placing your page file on a "Seperate" partition on the last sector of your hard drive is most suitable. Having your Page file on the same partition as your Operating System is not recommended. Your PC will apprciate you if this is done.

It is not on by default as being the "End User" you should not have to worry about clearing your page file at every shutdown/reboot. Leaving it off speads up the PC, the customer is only worried about "Is it fast?" On the IT side of things clearing the page file leaves a huge advantage, however it can always be done through registry settings in prev versions, for the End User since workstations are freely available to everyone but sittuated in within your personal working space. Not all companies allow sharing of PC's however the issue is that any one person, with the know how, can walk up to your PC and retrieve cached information if not dealt with correctly.

 

@whistl3r
Thank God its not 7 writes. I dont wait till tomorrow just for shutdown!

@
Is the size of page file propotional to the size of physical memory?
coz I've noticed when I increase the puhsical memory (RAM) the pagefile increses its size too

 

It's 1 - 1.5x your physical memory, same goes for setting an individual partition to deal with your page file.

A large PF is not needed if you have a Gig or more of memory.

 

@whistl3r

RAM: 2Gb
I'll leave every thing as is since the system is running smooth without errors.
I was wondering what is the reason for clearing the pagefile.
Thanks

 

Scroll up and you may find the answer