DEP in Vista

DEP is and important feature of windows Vista and soon Windows 7.

DEP is basically this:

Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is a security feature that can help prevent damage to your computer from viruses and other security threats. Harmful programs can try to attack Windows by attempting to run (also known as execute) code from system memory (RAM) locations reserved only for Windows and other authorized programs. These types of attacks can harm your programs and files. If DEP notices a program on your computer using memory incorrectly, it closes the program and notifies you with the DEP stop error. DEP is ran in a software mode and in a hardware mode. If your processor supports DEP (NX for AMD, and XD for Intel), then you will have hardware and software DEP. If it doesn't, then Vista will just use software DEP. 64 bit applications will have DEP enabled all the time by default, but 32 bit applications do not and must have DEP manually enabled for them. For more information, see: Windows Help and Support: Data Execution Prevention: FAQs

To verify status of DEP:

1. open a command prompt ( windows key + r , then type cmd )

2. in command prompt type : wmic OS Get DataExecutionPrevention_SupportPolicy and hit enter

3. one of four numbers will appear

0 = Always off-DEP is disabled for all processes

1= Always on-DEP enabled for all processes

2= OptIn-DEP is enable for only windows system components, this is the default setting

3= OptOut DEP is enabled for all processes. This is an administrative type setting where an admin will create lists of what has DEP enabled or not.

Setting 2 is fine for most users however, DEP is not on by default for Internet explorer 7. IE8 it is enabled. It’s a good idea to have this on although it may “break” some websites. It can be changed very easy.

Turn on DEP for IE7 32bit ver..

1. start IE7

2. Click on Tools then Internet options

3. Click on advanced tab on top header

4. Scroll to security and put a check in box by “ Enable memory protection to help mitigate online attacks”.

5. Unchecking this turns it off

Some IE7 addons “ toolbars or widgets” may cause it to crash. It may not even allow you to run. If that happens check out:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/114310-internet-explorer-reset.html