running Win XP with no paging file

Although I long ago implemented many recommendations for improving security on Win XP, I never felt lucky enough to run without a paging file. Until last week, that is.

So far, everything seems OK. The machine has 4 GB memory. It's noticeably faster, especially opening windows that have been idle for a while. I'd appreciate comments and suggestions. Perhaps we should do a poll. What should I be looking for re potential problems?

 

Thanks, ronjor. Memory dumps are indeed a key issue. It's easy to have compromising information from memory cleared from paging files at normal shutdown. However, just the opposite occurs intentionally after BSODs. AFAIK, there are just two options for preventing that: (1) encrypting C:\; and (2) running sans paging file. Have I missed any?

Memory dumps have indeed been useful in diagnosing BSODs. OTOH, I don't recall that they were ever crucial. And there's also risk involved in using encrypted partitions, I believe.

Anyway, I'll let y'all know how it turns out.

 

@hierophant

Recent discussions about it where i also posted with my positive experiences here https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=270449

 

@CloneRanger

Oops I missed your thread.

So, are you still running without one?

I'm seeing my first problem It seems that Panda has hoarded 1.2 GB private memory since yesterday. I'm going to reboot and see what happens.

EDIT: After rebooting, Panda shows 57 MB private memory, and total commit charge is 530 MB (vs >1.8 GB before rebooting).

 

I've identified a possible workaround for running Win XP x86 without disk-based pagefile.sys -- Romex VSuite Ramdisk. Apparently, on PAE-capable machines, one can create RAM disks in physical memory that's not available to Windows.

I'd appreciate comments re the product and/or company.

 

@hierophant

Not anymore

Absolutely, 100% of the time, have done for years. See my thread.

Re Panda

I would change my AV I'm using Avira and Prevx and no such problems here

If you install Ramdisk please post back with your observations.

Free Edition for Windows 2000/XP(32-bit)/2003(32-bit)

 

I'm glad to hear that! Everything's OK for me so far, except the Panda Cloud AV memory issue. And I'll let y'all know Ramdisk works -- at least, if decide that it's wise to run Chinese software. That's why I asked, BTW.

 

An interesting idea just hit me in the shower. A little background first. As a lark, I'm running an old WinXP machine with pagefile.sys etc on an 8GB flash chip in the motherboard IDE connector. It works fine.

So, with a little hardware hacking, I could either 1) put the chip in an external socket, or 2) add a "nuke flash" button (e.g., high voltage to the 5V pins, with protection for the motherboard and PS).

This is probably already done by some, right?

 

Win XP SP3 is still OK sans paging file. I've had no hangs or crashes.

On average, Panda Cloud AV takes 0.05 GB committed memory at start, and claims an additional 0.30 GB/day until restarted. So I reboot every few days.

The total commit charge (including Panda) averages 0.61 GB at boot, and increases at 0.05 GB/day on average (measured after restarting Panda). I must be running other programs that hoard committed memory.

 

Just an FYI:

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Don't know if that link was posted in any of the other threads or not.

But I suppose any user needs to play it whatever way they see fit.