{"id":14188,"date":"2019-04-24T02:03:23","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T02:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/?p=14188"},"modified":"2019-04-24T02:04:40","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T02:04:40","slug":"make-windows-clear-pagefile-at-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/make-windows-clear-pagefile-at-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Windows Clear Pagefile at Shutdown for Added Security"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pagefile is a hidden system file used by Windows to swap data back and forth between RAM and physical drive. When your RAM is insufficient to hold every running program, some of the program&#8217;s memory (including sensitive data and passwords) will be moved to the pagefile.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/windows-pagefile.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"542\" height=\"344\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14198\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Pagefile is well protected while Windows is running, but the data within it persists after a shutdown. A malicious user who has physical access to your PC can extract sensitive data from the pagefile by booting a Live CD. To prevent such potential security risk, you can configure Windows to automatically clear the paging file on every shutdown.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Method 1: Make Windows Clear Pagefile at Shutdown Using GPO<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Press the Windows logo key and the <strong>R<\/strong> key simultaneously. Once the Run dialog box is opened, type <strong>secpol.msc<\/strong> into it and click <strong>OK<\/strong>.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/secpol.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"399\" height=\"206\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11044\" \/>\n<\/li>\n<li>Navigate to <code>Security Settings -&gt; Local Policies -&gt; Security Options<\/code>. On the right pane, double-click on the &#8220;<strong>Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile<\/strong>&#8221; policy.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/clear-virtual-memory-pagefile.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"596\" height=\"292\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14193\" \/>\n<\/li>\n<li>Select the <strong>Enabled<\/strong> radio option, and then click on <strong>Apply<\/strong> and then <strong>OK<\/strong>.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/automatically-clear-pagefile-at-shutdown.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"419\" height=\"461\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14194\" \/>\n<\/li>\n<li>Restart your computer to make sure the changes take effect.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Method 2: Make Windows Clear Pagefile at Shutdown Using Registry Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/6-ways-to-open-registry-editor-in-windows-10\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Open the Registry Editor<\/a> and browse to the following key:<br \/>\n<code>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Session Manager\\Memory Management<\/code><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/ClearPageFileAtShutdown.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"303\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14195\" \/><\/p>\n<p> \tNext, double-click on a 32-bit DWORD value named <strong>ClearPageFileAtShutdown<\/strong> in the right pane.<\/li>\n<li>Change the current default value from 0 to 1. Click <strong>OK<\/strong> to save the changes.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/edit-dword-value.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14196\" \/>\n<\/li>\n<li>Restart Windows to apply your changes. Whenever you shut down your PC, Windows will automatically clear the pagefile for added security.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pagefile is a hidden system file used by Windows to swap data back and forth between RAM and physical drive. When your RAM is insufficient to hold every running program, some of the program&#8217;s memory (including sensitive data and passwords) will be moved to the pagefile. Pagefile is well protected while Windows is running, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10,1894,3,39],"tags":[4190,4191],"class_list":["post-14188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-others","category-tips-tricks","category-windows-10","category-windows-7","category-windows-8","tag-clear-pagefile-at-shutdown","tag-clear-virtual-memory-pagefile-windows-10"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14188"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14200,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14188\/revisions\/14200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}