http://ask.metafilter.com/52044/Is-it-possible-to-write-a-program-that-uses-only-physical-RAM-and-not-the-swappagefile-in-Windows/ Comments on Ask MetaFilter post Is it possible to write a program that uses only physical RAM, and not the swap/pagefile in Windows? Thu, 30 Nov 2006 04:44:49 -0800 Thu, 30 Nov 2006 04:44:49 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://ask.metafilter.com/52044/Is-it-possible-to-write-a-program-that-uses-only-physical-RAM-and-not-the-swappagefile-in-Windows Is it possible to write a program that uses only physical RAM, and not the swap/pagefile in Windows? <br /><br /> I am trying to write a program that won't leave any traces on a computer after it is run. As it currently stands, it leaves lots of signatures in the swap file. Terribly annoying. post:ask.metafilter.com,2008:site.52044 Thu, 30 Nov 2006 04:26:56 -0800 torpark Programming Windows Swap Cache Pagefile RAM http://ask.metafilter.com/52044/Is-it-possible-to-write-a-program-that-uses-only-physical-RAM-and-not-the-swappagefile-in-Windows#786308 You could allocate a buffer from the non-paged pool. But easier than that would be calling SecureZeroMemory() on all buffers which ought to take care of the page file as well. comment:ask.metafilter.com,2008:site.52044-786308 Thu, 30 Nov 2006 04:44:49 -0800 Rhomboid http://ask.metafilter.com/52044/Is-it-possible-to-write-a-program-that-uses-only-physical-RAM-and-not-the-swappagefile-in-Windows#786310 See also the DPAPI (CryptProtectMemory() and friends). comment:ask.metafilter.com,2008:site.52044-786310 Thu, 30 Nov 2006 04:47:18 -0800 Rhomboid http://ask.metafilter.com/52044/Is-it-possible-to-write-a-program-that-uses-only-physical-RAM-and-not-the-swappagefile-in-Windows#786341 I had thought that there was no way to guarantee from where allocated heap memory came from in win32? comment:ask.metafilter.com,2008:site.52044-786341 Thu, 30 Nov 2006 05:59:49 -0800 cmicali http://ask.metafilter.com/52044/Is-it-possible-to-write-a-program-that-uses-only-physical-RAM-and-not-the-swappagefile-in-Windows#786439 Could you add a lot of ram and disable swapping? comment:ask.metafilter.com,2008:site.52044-786439 Thu, 30 Nov 2006 07:52:10 -0800 stereo http://ask.metafilter.com/52044/Is-it-possible-to-write-a-program-that-uses-only-physical-RAM-and-not-the-swappagefile-in-Windows#786661 In Unix you'd mlock() the memory. The Windows equivilent appears to be <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/memory/base/virtuallock.asp">VirtualLock()</a>. comment:ask.metafilter.com,2008:site.52044-786661 Thu, 30 Nov 2006 11:15:33 -0800 Freaky