Your page file can contain critical information...

By peeking on my own hard disc with a hex editor (mounting it from a dual boot system or live CD), i found various user- and account names - with a simple hex editor.

To avoid security breaches, i recommend to clear your page file automatically during shutdown.

Simply start Notepad and enter the following lines (the file should be renamed afterwards, so that it ends with .reg):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"ClearPageFileAtShutdown"=dword:00000001

It appears that Windows 2000 and NT uses the same registry entry, as documented in KB 182086