Automatically Clear The Contents Of The Pagefile (Windows Server 2003)
When multiple users share computers, privacy becomes an issue because you don’t want the next person who sits at the computer to know what you were doing. You can make Windows secure and ensure your privacy in a network environment by opening the local security policy on your PC. In Windows Server 2003: Open the Start menu, select Control Panel, and double-click AdministrativeTools. Double-click the Local Security Policy applet. Expand Local Policies in the left panel and select Security Options. Scroll to the bottom of the list and double-click the option to Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile. Select the Enabled…
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#1. November 6th, 2008, at 11:32 AM.
By itself, clearing the pagefile on shutdown will do little for security. Many things must be done to secure a system, there are no quick fixes. If the system is actually being used as a server it will be virtually useless as servers are rarely shutdown.
Windows locks the pagefile for exclusive access while it is running and it cannot be accessed by any applications. Such access would require booting with an alternate operating system, such as a DOS boot disk with the necessary software. Fanding anything of value in several hundred MB of raw data would be quite time consuming.
Clearing the pagefile might be useful when highly sensitive data is involved. But this would only be effective as part of a well thought out security policy.
Larry Miller
Microsoft MCSA