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Virtual
Memory
Operating systems as they grow more complex have a tendency to require more system resources to run. Computers typically have a very limited amount of physical RAM which is not enough for the newer memory hungry operating systems. Because of this, the operating systems use the much larger hard disk space transparently as memory using a technique called virtual memory.
The use of hard disk space in this manner creates a touchy problem for data security. Transparently to your applications, sections of documents are being stored temporarily in various locations on your hard drive. How do you ensure every single trace of any of your data is erased under these conditions? You cannot really. However, data stored in virtual memory will tend to be quickly overwritten when you run the next application. This will not be totally secure but should suffice for most situations.
Do you need total protection from the possibility compromise of data through virtual memory? Configure your system to not use virtual memory. You should probably add additional physical RAM as part of this process. A word of caution - some operating systems may actually run slower if you totally disable virtual memory instead of merely setting it to a very low value.