How to clear Windows disk read cache

Why, TrueCrypt!

Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.

Using TrueCrypt Without Administrator Privileges

In Windows, a user who does not have administrator privileges can use TrueCrypt, but only after a system administrator installs TrueCrypt on the system. The reason for that is that TrueCrypt needs a device driver to provide transparent on-the-fly encryption/decryption, and users without administrator privileges cannot install/start device drivers in Windows.

After a system administrator installs TrueCrypt on the system, users without administrator privileges will be able to run TrueCrypt, mount/dismount any type of TrueCrypt volume, load/save data from/to it, and create file-hosted TrueCrypt volumes on the system. However, users without administrator privileges cannot encrypt/format partitions, cannot create NTFS volumes, cannot install/uninstall TrueCrypt, cannot change passwords/keyfiles for TrueCrypt partitions/devices, cannot backup/restore headers of TrueCrypt partitions/devices, and they cannot run TrueCrypt in portable mode.

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System encryption involves pre-boot authentication, which means that anyone who wants to gain access and use the encrypted system, read and write files stored on the system drive, etc., will need to enter the correct password each time before Windows boots (starts). Pre-boot authentication is handled by the TrueCrypt Boot Loader, which resides in the first track of the boot drive and on the TrueCrypt Rescue Disk.

Domain access is after the pre-boot login.

However, if the user needs to change the password and the employer expects to know that password, it is a matter of the employer trusting the user/employee.

It sounds like BranchCache may be a good fit for you, though you may also benefit from some performance improvements in DFS-R made in Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2.

There have been some case studies written about BranchCache that may tell you more about BranchCache performance in the real world. Just search for "BranchCache case study".

BranchCache is careful to always honor the most current access control settings on any piece of content (file, web page ...). Before a client pc can download data from the cache in the branch office (either on a hosted cache server or on a peer) it must obtain content identifiers from the main office server. If the client doesn't have permission to access the data, the main office server won't send the identifiers. There are a bunch of documents explaining how this works on branchcache.com.

If you want, you can pre-load the BranchCache cache by having one of the clients in the branch (or the actual hosted cache server) access data ahead of time. This might be scriptable in some cases if you want to preload the cache before workers get in.

If you're going to keep a server in the branch, and you're going to upgrade to R2, there's no reason why you can't deploy a combination of BranchCache and DFS-R. A single box can act as a DFS-R replication point and as a hosted cache server simultaneously. You can get sharepoint and SMB optimization this way, and by spreading your data across the two technologies, you can get the best properties of each for your various categories of data.

I hope this helps! -Tyler