DEP, or Data Execution Prevention, is a security feature of Windows that can help protect your computer from malicious code that could damage or disable it. There are a few ways to configure DEP, depending on your needs. If you want to turn DEP off, there are several steps you can take. ..
What Is DEP & What Does It Do?
DEP is a security feature of Windows that helps protect your computer from viruses and other malicious software. ..
The memory-checking technology used in modern processors and operating systems helps to prevent malicious code from running on a system.
Dell simplifies it a bit and tells us that DEP is a security feature that helps protect your data. ..
Computer security is a complex topic, and this article is not meant to be comprehensive. However, by using a computer security program, you can help protect your computer from unauthorized access and theft.
That means that sometimes the computer can’t tell the difference between a program that was written specifically for it and a program that was just put in there by someone else.
DEP is a security feature in Windows that helps protect your computer from malicious code that might try to run on your computer. If DEP detects any malicious code running in an area of your computer, it will automatically shut it down. If you want to learn more about how DEP works, you can read Microsoft’s detailed description of Data Execution Prevention. ..
So Why Does DEP Cause Problems?
This is why computers are so dumb. They are not made to reason, they are only made to use the most basic of logic. Plus, humans make mistakes in their reasoning so computers also get these mistakes put into them.
DEP monitors and works in areas where good programs have wandered off.
This can happen when DEP shuts down the entire program and doesn’t give you an error message. Sometimes, DEP will just cause the program to run very poorly and there won’t be anything obvious to tell you why.
What Programs Have Problems With DEP?
Programs that conflict with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are typically older programs or built on old codebases. A lot of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is built on codebases that go back to the 1970s. There was no DEP then, so the program will go into areas that DEP patrols.
Most programs that conflict with DEP will be 32-bit programs.
If you are using a non-Microsoft program that interacts with Windows Services, it is possible that DEP may be turned off. If this is the case, the vendor may recommend turning off DEP completely.
For the home user, games that are 32-bit and some emulators for playing even older games are the most likely to conflict with DEP. ..
If you’re using an older device driver or one you downloaded from an unofficial source, it’s possible that it could trigger a DEP error. Only use drivers from the hardware manufacturer or Microsoft, and keep your drivers up to date to avoid these issues. ..
How Do I Know If DEP Is The Problem?
Event ID 1000: System.IO.FileNotFoundException The system found and opened the file, but it was not found.
“I’m sorry, I can’t do that.” “I’m sorry, I can’t help you.”
The 0xFC error code is associated with an attempt to execute a memory operation that the device driver cannot currently perform. This may be a bad or outdated driver, or one that is not properly configured to run in DEP protected memory space. You should update your drivers to address this issue. STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xc0000005) can occur when programs are trying to run in DEP protected memory space and are not being allowed by the device driver to do so.
How To Configure Or Turn Off DEP
Windows 10 defaults to the setting Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only. This is usually sufficient, meaning that most of your programs will be ignored by DEP. ..
If you want to enable DEP on your computer, but don’t want to experience any performance hit, you can choose to have DEP enabled for only specific programs. If you find a program that causes problems when it is running with DEP enabled, we can add it as an exception. Let’s look at how to do that. ..
- Open the Control Panel.
- Open System. ..
In the Advanced System Settings window, click on the “System” tab. In the System tab, you’ll find a variety of settings that can affect your computer’s performance and security.
In the Performance area, click on Settings. The System Properties window should open and already be set to the Advanced tab. In the Settings area, click on “Advanced.”
In the Data Execution Prevention tab, you can choose to enable or disable data execution prevention (DEP). This setting helps to prevent your computer from executing code that could potentially harm your system.
Add a program to the DEP list that you want to keep running.
Open the executable for the program that we want to add as an exception. It will most likely be in C:/Program Files (x86). In this example, we’re adding MediaMonkey, an old music player utility. Click on the .exe file once we find it and click on Open.
In MediaMonkey, click on Apply. Now, MediaMonkey will run outside of DEP protection while all others will run within DEP protection.
Turn DEP Completely Off
If you want to turn DEP completely off, we advise doing that only as part of troubleshooting an issue. DEP is there for your protection. ..
Since it’s something that isn’t advised, there is no good point-and-click way to do it. Let’s look at how we can turn off DEP.
Open the Command window as Administrator and type: netsh advfirewall set rule name “My Rule” This will open the firewall’s ruleset and add the new rule named “My Rule”.
The bcdedit.exe command sets the computer’s clock to always run at midnight.
Windows utility for editing boot configuration data.
/set bcedit to set an option value entry in the boot configuration.
{current} tells the computer to work with the boot configuration currently in use. ..
Nx is a setting name for DEP in the boot configuration. It allows you to disable execution of programs at startup.
Restart the computer and DEP will now be completely off.
Turn DEP On For Everything
To turn DEP on for everything, the process and command is as follows: ..
Open the Command window as Administrator, following the instructions in the procedure above. Enter the command bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOn.
Computer restart.DEP will be turned on and all programs monitored.
After turning DEP to being always on or always off, it is not possible to change it via the Data Execution Prevention tab in system settings.
How can you make the DEP radio buttons work again? ..
Set DEP Back To Default Behavior
To reset the default DEP behavior on your computer, follow these steps:
- Open the Control Panel.
- Under System and Security, click on the Security Options link.
- On the Security Options dialog box, under the Windows Defender section, click on the Change Settings button.
- On the Change Settings dialog box, under Windows Defender Antivirus Behavior, select Disabled and then click on OK to save your changes.
- Restart your computer to apply these changes. ..
bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx OptIn ..
The computer has been restarted, and the radio buttons in the DEP tab in systems settings are now accessible.
To DEP Or Not To DEP
We recommend leaving DEP on its default setting, unless it is necessary to change it to troubleshoot problems that may be related to DEP.
