Registry Guide for Windows Registry Guide for Windows
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Registry tweaks, tricks & hacks to optimize, enhance and secure Microsoft Windows.

Clear the Page File at System Shutdown (Windows NT/2000/XP)
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Windows does not normally clear or recreate the page file. On a heavily used system this can be both a security threat and performance drop. Enabling this setting will cause Windows to clear the page file whenever the system is shutdown.

Open your registry and find the key below.

Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value called 'ClearPageFileAtShutdown' using the settings below.

Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.

Note: Please note on systems with large amounts of memory, and therefore large swap-file, this tweak could cause a delay at shutdown due to the additional time taken to clear the data from the file.

Registry Editor Example
|NameTypeData|
|(Default)REG_SZ(value not set)|
|ClearPageFileAtShutdownREG_DWORD0x00000001 (1)|
-
|HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memo...|
-

Settings:
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\
Memory Management]

Name: ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value: (0 = disabled, 1 = enabled)

Disclaimer: Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. We cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.

Last Modified: May 14, 2003

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