Clearing Pagefile

lillibelle · 03-09-05, 09:39 AM

Does anybody clear the pagefile in Windows at shutdown? I'm trying to decide if it's worth doing.

Howard2k · 03-09-05, 09:47 AM

You shouldn't need to. And in fact you don't want to, it will only decrease the performance.

You should have the pagefile min and max sizes both the same so the OS doesn't have to be concerned about dynamically growing or shrinking it. If disk space is an issue you can consider two paging files or moving it to another disk.

lillibelle · 03-09-05, 09:52 AM

I'm more worried about security. Someone told me that when I edit my passwords in my password program, they can be stored unencrypted in the pagefile.

Howard2k · 03-09-05, 09:59 AM

If you do a clean shutdown that should be flushed. They're also possibly in the PC's memory too, which is arguably equally vulnerable, depending on the OS. You're also at risk from keyloggers (software oor hardware) etc. Are you using a shared public PC?

lillibelle · 03-09-05, 10:06 AM

I don't use a shared PC at home and I shut down completely evey night both at home and office. My office PC can be used by others, so I'm more worried about it than the home machine. I've used Pest Patrol for keyloggers. What can be done, if anything, about the memory?

Howard2k · 03-09-05, 10:29 AM

If you're that concerned about it I would just not use that computer for anything sensitive. It sounds like the PC is not owned and operated exclusively by you so you should assume that you cannot trust it 100%.

I feel that you're heading down the paranoia path though.

Have you thought about encrypting your personal traffic through a VPN tunnel to a trusted proxy? There are risks there too.

In reality I would decide whether you have enough trust to use the PC for "sensitive" tasks and if you don't, then don't.

03-09-05, 12:22 PM

i have it set to clear the pagefile when i shut down, i see a little bit improved performance

lillibelle · 03-09-05, 10:32 PM

Originally Posted by Howard2k

I feel that you're heading down the paranoia path though.

You could be right. I just want to make sure I'm covering all the bases. I don't edit passwords on my office machine, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

But ya never know.....

Mog · 03-09-05, 11:10 PM

Originally Posted by ericcumbee

i have it set to clear the pagefile when i shut down, i see a little bit improved performance

Oh no, another thing I'm sure I should be doing but not. What is a pagefile, and where is it?

tyrannical · 03-09-05, 11:16 PM

Originally Posted by ericcumbee

i have it set to clear the pagefile when i shut down, i see a little bit improved performance

I'm pretty sure you don't. heh.

pr5owner · 03-10-05, 01:20 AM

depending on the size of the swap, it will slow your computer when shutting down, just upgrade to a GB of ram and shutoff your swap all together, i did this on all the computers in my house with 1GB. all have been working flawlessly.

lillibelle · 03-10-05, 07:12 AM

I'm planning on upgrading RAM later in the year. I've got 512 now. What's the optimal size for a pagefile?

Howard2k · 03-10-05, 09:18 AM

It depends how you use the computer. The more applications you have open the more memory you need. If you only surf the occasional web page and reboot often you could get by without (like what Pr5owner mentioned). If you have Photoshop, 5 browser instances, word, excel and iTunes open then you're going to obviously use more.

I normally set the pagefile equal to my physical memory or twice my physical memory. So with 512MB of RAM I'd be using a pagefile of either 512MB or 1GB. Ensure that the pagefile Min and Max sizes are the same, you never want the pagefile to dynamically shrink or grow.