?
=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BBQ=AB?=
Eraser 5.7 still includes EraserD.
[path]\eraserd.exe –file [path]\win386.swp –passes 3
will work from DOS. And maybe will work if put in autoexec.bat, I
dunno.
Yep.
Eraser 5.7 still includes EraserD.
[path]\eraserd.exe –file [path]\win386.swp –passes 3
will work from DOS. And maybe will work if put in autoexec.bat, I
dunno.
Yep.
S
Steven Burn
</snip>
Thats not strictly true. The Windows swap file will normally become smaller
when applications and processes are closed anyway, even without re-booting.
If it is not doing this then there is obviously something running on your
system that is keeping it active (virus, worm, mal/spyware etc).
</snip>
I'd personally be checking which programs I have running on Windows boot up
as it is possible that there is a program that is effectively "protecting"
the swap file and restoring it when it's not the same as it was before. As
you have checked System Restore, I'd be looking at third party app's to see
if they are the culprit.
--
Regards
Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk
Keeping it FREE!
Disclaimer:
I know I'm probably wrong, I just like taking part ;o)
J
John Corliss
Duddits said:
I saw that one (Scorch) but didn't try it because the readme said it
was shareware. However, I just re-read the readme and noticed the
following:
"Anyone may use it indefinitely on a single computer for their own
private and personal use for free."
Cool! Guess I *will* check it out.
J
John Corliss
Steven said:John,
You don't need a freeware proggy to do this)
To delete the swap file, go to your startup options, and select "Selective
Startup", then click Apply...... DO NOT re-start Windows yet.
Go to Start > Run, type: "notepad c:\autoexec.bat" (without the quotes)
Add the following line BEFORE everything else in the file, but AFTER the
@echooff line;
deltree /y c:\windows\win386.swp
My autoexec.bat file looks like this:
SET COMSPEC=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM
SET windir=C:\WINDOWS
SET winbootdir=C:\WINDOWS
SET
PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C:\WINDOWS\Twain_32\Scanwiz;C:\WINDOWS\Twain\Scanwiz;C:\WP51
SET PROMPT=$p$g
SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
SET TMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
SET
CLASSPATH=.;C:\PROGRA~1\JMF21~1.1E\LIB\SOUND.JAR;C:\PROGRA~1\JMF21~1.1E\LIB;C:\PROGRA~1\JMF21~1.1E\LIB\JMF.JAR
Millennium Edition, ya know.
Steven,
That sounds like it will work, but I want to have a swap file
during the session. I just don't want data carried over from reboot to
reboot.
Wow. I'm getting a headache from all this. Will check back later.
R
REMbranded
The swap file contains page files that have been swapped to disk. This
is pretty much everything that you do. There might be passwords,
portions of confidential documents, adult material, whatever.
Do you remember WasUp!'s batch file with .pif to clear the index.dat
files that cannot be deleted? I'm pretty sure you can get the right
copy, 98 or Me, and add your above commands to it and it will do what
you want.
I just rebooted to DOS and deleted my swap file, so I'm certain his
little package will do what you want. It has a .pif file that boots
out of Windows and into DOS, performs the commands and reboots right
back to Windows.
I can't locate his site, but I found the files at another site:
http://www.starcruiser.smorumnet.dk/Wasup.html
Yeah, apply your commands to the batch file and delete or fix any
lines that don't apply to the paths on your machine. You click the
..bat in Explorer. It will prompt you that it is a DOS program, select
yes to continue. You can clean anything persistent in Windoze with
this file.
I've used BcWipe for years. This is the program that incited me to
start archiving freeware versions. They "pledged" in the docs to keep
this program freeware and then broke the pledge
This is the first file I added to my site if you care for the last
freeware version:
http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32/bcwipe228.html
Eraser might be worth checking into if you prefer a newer program.
BcWipe wipes the heck out of the swap file, file slacks at the end of
clusters, directory entries and free space. Mix and match, or just use
it on your swap file. It takes a couple of minutes to totally
devastate your swap beyond recovery if that is all that you elect to
wipe.
Wipe it and then run the WasUp!.bat. You can throw the command to shut
down Windows at the end and walk away as the files are deleted and
your machine shuts down.
W
WhItE RaBBiT
This has been covered for years in privacy forums/websites/newsgroups.
J
John Corliss
Nadeem said:
It is indeed. I looked at the list and saw it before I started all
this. However, since there (understandably) was no mention of the
ability to delete the swap file I moved on. I will check it out. Thanks.
S
Steven Burn
John,
There's no reason for it not to work.
As for having a swap file during the session, you don't actually have a
choice in the matter (aside from setting it's size to 0.... which is not
reccomended) as Windows will create the file if it is not already present
(i.e. after deleting it).
--
Regards
Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk
Keeping it FREE!
Disclaimer:
I know I'm probably wrong, I just like taking part ;o)
J
John Corliss
The swap file contains page files that have been swapped to disk. This
is pretty much everything that you do. There might be passwords,
portions of confidential documents, adult material, whatever.
Do you remember WasUp!'s batch file with .pif to clear the index.dat
files that cannot be deleted? I'm pretty sure you can get the right
copy, 98 or Me, and add your above commands to it and it will do what
you want.
I just rebooted to DOS and deleted my swap file, so I'm certain his
little package will do what you want. It has a .pif file that boots
out of Windows and into DOS, performs the commands and reboots right
back to Windows.
I can't locate his site, but I found the files at another site:
http://www.starcruiser.smorumnet.dk/Wasup.html
Yeah, apply your commands to the batch file and delete or fix any
lines that don't apply to the paths on your machine. You click the
.bat in Explorer. It will prompt you that it is a DOS program, select
yes to continue. You can clean anything persistent in Windoze with
this file.
I've used BcWipe for years. This is the program that incited me to
start archiving freeware versions. They "pledged" in the docs to keep
this program freeware and then broke the pledge
This is the first file I added to my site if you care for the last
freeware version:
http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32/bcwipe228.html
Eraser might be worth checking into if you prefer a newer program.
BcWipe wipes the heck out of the swap file, file slacks at the end of
clusters, directory entries and free space. Mix and match, or just use
it on your swap file. It takes a couple of minutes to totally
devastate your swap beyond recovery if that is all that you elect to
wipe.
Wipe it and then run the WasUp!.bat. You can throw the command to shut
down Windows at the end and walk away as the files are deleted and
your machine shuts down.
Thanks! I'm gonna check it out too.
A
Anonymous
[...]
| This begs the question, what's being kept within it? It's
|impossible to view the contents of the swap file directly, and I can't
|delete the thing without using a boot disk. This is in spite of the
|fact that I *can* delete index.dat files by running a batch file at
|startup. In fact, I've modified that batch file to read the following:
|
| del C:\WINDOWS\win386.swp
| del C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\index.dat
| del C:\WINDOWS\History\History.IE5\index.dat
| del C:\WINDOWS\Tempor~1\Content.IE5\index.dat
[...]
Hi John, I use WindowsME as well. Would you please be kind enough to
tell me how I can do this? I am of the "What's dos? and "What's a
batch file." generation. If you would kind enough to send me a copy
of your batch file along with instructions on how to use it would be
most appreciated. Thanks.
The reply-to addy in my header is valid.
-=-
| This begs the question, what's being kept within it? It's
|impossible to view the contents of the swap file directly, and I can't
|delete the thing without using a boot disk. This is in spite of the
|fact that I *can* delete index.dat files by running a batch file at
|startup. In fact, I've modified that batch file to read the following:
|
| del C:\WINDOWS\win386.swp
| del C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\index.dat
| del C:\WINDOWS\History\History.IE5\index.dat
| del C:\WINDOWS\Tempor~1\Content.IE5\index.dat
[...]
Hi John, I use WindowsME as well. Would you please be kind enough to
tell me how I can do this? I am of the "What's dos? and "What's a
batch file." generation. If you would kind enough to send me a copy
of your batch file along with instructions on how to use it would be
most appreciated. Thanks.
The reply-to addy in my header is valid.
-=-
H
H-Man
John,John Corliss said:
http://207.54.116.99/swapkill/swapkill.zip
I just upload a program I just wrote to delete the swapfile from your
autoexec.bat. The program will pause with a message if the swapfile doesn't
get deleted, or if there was a problem, so in this case no news is good
news. I can't make it securely delete the swapfile though as this would
involve overwriting the contents, this would involve writing huge amounts of
data to the hard drive. I can't do this in any reasonable amount of time so
I have avoided it for the moment, if this is something you might want to
see, I can add it in as an option, it'll just take a while. It is my hope
that you and others find this useful. If there's anything you'd like to see
changed, I'd be happy to accomodate.
Happy Holidays
HK
R
REMbranded
Overwriting is pretty easy. Use random seed bin and have at it. If you
can read the size of the swap file, simply open and write to it
several times, each 5 megs or so more, closing/opening between each
write, with random characters. Then delete the mama.
I can give you some c++ code. Remove the 3 caps to email.
D
donutbandit
Unfortunately, it won't work in ME, as ME does not use autoexec.bat, and
rewrites it at every boot.
H
H-Man
I'm not too terribly familiar with the ME abortion so please forgive mydonutbandit said:
overlooking that. There is a patch for accessing Real Mode DOS at
http://www.geocities.com/mfd4life_2000/
I have also uploaded it to
http://207.54.116.99/swapkill/mfddme13.zip
This should allow the processing of a proper Autoexec.bat file.
HK
H
H-Man
I understand the mechanics of overwriting the file, it'll just add to the
boot time. Can't write 40 or 50 megs that quickly, but I haven't actually
clocked it, so it might not be that big a deal. Just one question though,
why close the file and re-open it after you write every block? Why not just
write to it until you reach the file length you found when you opened it,
then close and delete? I'm probably missing something here.
HK
T
task two
For quite some time now, I've noticed that the swap file (I'm using
John
If you have 'Let Windows Manage My Swapfile' (or whatever it's called)
engaged and you have it set to a certain % (mb's) of your HardDrive, it will
always come back as that size.
You can uncheck the 'Let Windows Manage My Swapfile' and choose to manage it
yourself and set your own size in mb's.
However, the default 'Let Windows Manage My Swapfile' is there for a
reason...basically common sense to permit a reasonable amount of space to
'swap' during use. Lowering it can cause slowdowns.
Perhaps by unchecking 'Let Windows Manage My Swapfile' and using your own
settings, the batch file suggestions in earlier posts will work for you,
don't really know about that myself...YMMV.
Stoney
John
If you have 'Let Windows Manage My Swapfile' (or whatever it's called)
engaged and you have it set to a certain % (mb's) of your HardDrive, it will
always come back as that size.
You can uncheck the 'Let Windows Manage My Swapfile' and choose to manage it
yourself and set your own size in mb's.
However, the default 'Let Windows Manage My Swapfile' is there for a
reason...basically common sense to permit a reasonable amount of space to
'swap' during use. Lowering it can cause slowdowns.
Perhaps by unchecking 'Let Windows Manage My Swapfile' and using your own
settings, the batch file suggestions in earlier posts will work for you,
don't really know about that myself...YMMV.
Stoney
T
Terry Russell
Deleting the swap_file_ won't give you much extra security,
whatever was in the file will still remain on disk until overwritten.
Overwriting unused diskspace, don't forget the cluster slack space,
will take a lot of time.
Get a lot of ram and don't use a swapfile.
and encrypt the disk, as if THEY can't crack it,
and don't do anything of interest
and line the room with alfoil to stop eavesdropping.
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=tempest+security&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF
-8&start=10&sa=N
Repeat after me: ' Admit nothing, I was drunk at the time, the goat is
lying' ;-)
S
Steven Burn
But sir....... twas a horse, not a goat! <VBG>
--
Regards
Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk
Keeping it FREE!
Disclaimer:
I know I'm probably wrong, I just like taking part ;o)
B
Bob Adkins
John,
Let us know how things work out. It's an interesting issue.
Bob
H
H-Man
I've uploaded the latest version, it does overwrite the swap file, but like
I said, it takes a while to write like 50megs.
HK