Wipe swap file on R-Wipe latest

A place to discuss data and privacy protection, file and disk wipe, computer cleaning, and removing traces of user activity with R-Wipe & Clean.
Forum rules
Discussion on the R-Wipe & Clean and R-Crypto software
Post Reply
lordbeau
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:47 am

Wipe swap file on R-Wipe latest

Post by lordbeau » Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:08 am

There no longer seems to be an option to wipe the swap file on Windows 8.1. How can I go about this? TIA.

Alt
Site Moderator
Posts: 3129
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2008 2:13 pm
Contact:

Re: Wipe swap file on R-Wipe latest

Post by Alt » Tue Sep 29, 2015 10:31 am

Sorry for a long delay with the answer, but we needed some time to check some facts in order to answer you properly.

R-Wipe & Clean can wipe swap files on Windows 2000, 2000 Server, XP and Server 2003. Starting from Vista, Microsoft made access to the paging files much harder, and, which even more important, much more dangerous. For example, a conflict between an anti-virus program and R-Wipe & Clean may result in total inability for the system to start. And, as that happens at the early stage of system loading, it'll be very hard to cure the situation for a common user. That's why we abandoned this feature in Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10, and R-Wipe & Clean doesn't show it in its Tree View on these systems.

We tested several other similar applications and found that none of them actually cleaned swap files, regardless on what they claim.

Windows 8 and up has a separate swap file for the Metro applications. We plane to add its cleaning in some future version, but no release date promised.

If necessary, you may clean the swap file manually. To do so,
1. Go to the Control Panel, and select "Advanced System Settings".
The Advanced tab will appear on the System Settings
2. Click the Settings ... button on that tab.
3. Go to the "Advanced" tab on the Performance Options window and click the "Change ..." button on the Virtual Memory section.
4. Clear the "Automatically manage paging file size for all drive" option, and select @No Paging File" and click the "Set" button for all disks.
5. Click the OK button on all those windows (Virtual Memory, Performance Options, and System Properties).
6. Restart the system and wipe the free space on all disks using R-Wipe & Clean.
7. When R-Wipe & Clean finishes the job, go back to the Performance Options window and select the "Automatically manage paging file size for all drive" option.
8. Restart the system.

It is important to turn the virtual memory option on right immediately after the wiping task finishes, as the paging files are used not only for the system's virtual memory.

lordbeau
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:47 am

Re: Wipe swap file on R-Wipe latest

Post by lordbeau » Thu Feb 18, 2016 1:19 pm

Many thanks for taking the time to reply. I note that Swap File is now covered for W8,1 in the latest version of R-Wipe. Does that mean that it now wipes it securely?

Alt
Site Moderator
Posts: 3129
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2008 2:13 pm
Contact:

Re: Wipe swap file on R-Wipe latest

Post by Alt » Mon Feb 22, 2016 2:02 pm

This is the swap file for Universal Windows apps (Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps), not the general page file.

Post Reply