Disable and Turn Off (or Enable or Turn On) Data Execution Prevention (DEP) in Windows Vista
Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is security feature that first introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and is included in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Vista, plus future operating system. DEP is intended to prevent an application or service from executing code from a non-executable memory region. DEP is enforced by hardware technology that detects code that is running from the default heap and the stack and raises an exception to terminate the process when execution occurs, and software-enforcer that prevent malicious code from taking advantage of exception-handling mechanisms in Windows. In short, DEP perform additional checks on memory to prevent malicious code or exploits from running on the system by shut down the process once detected.
However, Data Execution Prevention may accidentally shut down legitimate process from valid applications or services, particularly third-party installers used by software developers that release their products for download through the Web, or software programs that are less commonly used. To make thing worse, DEP normally does not or fails to display or show any warning or information or acknowledgment message prompt that can let you know that DEP has shut down a process, thus causing you unaware of the reason why your setup file cannot run, or why your computer cannot start a service and etc.
Good news is that you can disable or turn off Data Execution Prevention (DEP) globally in Windows Vista. To stop the DEP protection, launch an elevated command prompt shell with administrative priviledges and credentials (log on to Windows Vista with a user account with administrator rights, and then right click on Command Prompt icon and select “Run as Administrator, or turn off UAC). Then execute the following command:
bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff
If you regret your decision and now wants to enable or turn back on the DEP protection for your Windows Vista, simply use the following command instead:
bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOn
Related Articles
- How to Verify Data Execution Prevention is Enabled or Disabled in Vista
- Disable or Turn Off (Or Enable and Turn On) Windows Vista Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) Protected Mode
- How to Enable and Turn On Hibernation Feature in Windows Vista
- How to Turn Off and Disable Windows Flip 3D Switcher in Vista
- Disable and Turn Off System Restore (Shadow Copy) in Windows Vista
- How to Turn Off and Disable Hibernation in Windows Vista
- How to Disable or Enable (Turn On or Off) Windows 7 Snap Automatically Maximize and Arrange Window
- How to Enable or Disable (Turn On or Off) Desktop Preview in Windows 7
- Turn On and Enable UPnP or Network Discovery in Windows Vista
- Turn Off or Disable User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista
Entries (RSS)
November 28th, 2009 12:44
it does not work
November 6th, 2009 01:53
omg i followed your instructions and it didnt work, then i found out how to do it the normal way through selecting certain programs for DEP to ignor but it wont let me put a check on either box and i think its becuase of the command prompt. i tried to set it back on again and it said it couldnt do it acces deinied or something. HELP!!
November 5th, 2009 04:50
its still not letting me publish i have got to the part of pasting – bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff – in but were do i go from there? there isnt anything saying update or whatever
November 5th, 2009 04:45
were is this command prompt etc
October 15th, 2009 15:25
[...] Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is disabled either in the BIOS or in the operating system. [...]
October 15th, 2009 05:22
DUDE YOU ARE AWSOME THANKS SOOOO SOOOO MUCH
October 2nd, 2009 17:24
wow! thanks! it actually worked for me Vista Ultimate! Now, i can play Starcraft again! LOL
September 28th, 2009 05:13
I followed the posted instructions and it was successful and it also crash my lap top. I am unable to restart windows because of a hardware or software change. DO NOT FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS I HAD TO PAY DELL TO FIX THIS ERROR SINCE IM NOT UNDER WARRANTY. THANKS A LOT FOR THE $49 BAD INFORMATION
September 15th, 2009 21:07
When I try do this i type everything in but it just comes back and tells me that it has an unknown command “bcdedit” Please Help!
Also I was not sure if there must be spaces in between each word or not?
Thanks!
August 19th, 2009 05:57
um no difference… do i have to restart or something? i cant access my graphics card because DEP blocks it from running. its driving me nuts cus i was using my computer as a dvd player as well.
August 17th, 2009 01:09
[...] process. To fix problem arising from DEP protection when executing a software program, user can turn off and disable DEP globally, turn off or disable DEP entirely for all non-essential Windows programs and services (default for [...]
July 23rd, 2009 22:11
VISTA XPS M1530.
These instructions destroy boot-up. Blue Screen of Death…Using Repair boot > Advanced > Command Prompt > the command line to edit bcdedit.exe back to AlwaysOn does not work. This is a totally misleading and damaging article. Big bowl of wrong.
July 13th, 2009 02:36
This didn’t work for me either, so I just ran a search on the bcdedit and opened the file’s location. Then I deleted it.
May 10th, 2009 10:29
my problem is my game nascar racing 2003 dosent play it said no disc inserted…..what can i do??
April 27th, 2009 11:19
i need a help….
i tried to open control panel> system, but it can’t open because my computer had a DEP…
April 6th, 2009 23:52
It works ! Tnx very much
April 6th, 2009 21:49
Works on Windows Server 2008 Enterprise ?
February 21st, 2009 12:31
Required restart to work for me. FYI
January 1st, 2009 21:01
[...] choose to activate the feature as security measure or disable it for certain reasons. Check out our previous post on how to turn on/off the Data Execution Prevention tool. If you are using others’ computer or [...]
December 1st, 2008 05:37
do i need to reboot after i type in the optin and always on ting?
November 28th, 2008 23:03
To Extinction. My notebook is brand new out of the box with Vista and the DEP shuts down IE and Firefox with EVERY application I attempt to do. I can’t download anything from the net. Vista is living up to its reputation for being a mess. I can’t even download applications like Flash or Adobe.
November 23rd, 2008 01:02
bcdedit /set nx alwaysoff
that worked for me.
November 17th, 2008 02:35
And yet it does not work…
November 17th, 2008 02:35
My Apologies, I got it to work. I missed one of the steps
.
–Drei
November 17th, 2008 02:33
Wish I could say this helped. But it said “Access Denied”
Windows is epic fail
October 9th, 2008 09:33
Thanks that I found this post, now i can disable the UAC warning balloon permanently.
September 28th, 2008 22:40
U try to download this
http://downloads.fanatic.net.nz/eDSMSN81patch.exe
to use msn
September 14th, 2008 05:22
FWIW.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa906211.aspx
nx [Optin |OptOut | AlwaysOn |AlwaysOff]
Enables, disables, and configures Data Execution Prevention (DEP), a set of hardware and software technologies designed to prevent harmful code from running in protected memory locations. For information about how to use the Control Panel to change the DEP settings, see the Change Data Execution Prevention settings page on the Windows Help and How-to Web site.
Optin
Enables DEP only for operating system components, including the Windows kernel and drivers. Administrators can enable DEP on selected executable files by using the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT).
Optout
Enables DEP for the operating system and all processes, including the Windows kernel and drivers. However, administrators can disable DEP on selected executable files by using System in Control Panel.
AlwaysOn
Enables DEP for the operating system and all processes, including the Windows kernel and drivers. All attempts to disable DEP are ignored.
AlwaysOff
Disables DEP. Attempts to enable DEP selectively are ignored.
On Windows Vista, this parameter also disables Physical Address Extension (PAE). This parameter does not disable PAE on Windows Server 2008.
September 12th, 2008 08:23
Hmm I don’t think so. It’s a common issue that disabling DEP on an XPS m1530 with Vista will make it BSOD on startup (right after crcdisk.sys loads in safe mode), which I only found out after I disabled it. But yeah, lucky yours is still working.
September 10th, 2008 15:02
WTF is the zitinfested young ones babbling about here. DEP inactivation is working just perfect. My VISTA-system and Firefox is just fine and have never been better. No more crashes in FF.
It’s totally beyond me to even try to grasp what kind of crappy third party programs and other shellextensions you have on your systems, cause that must be the main reason your crappy systems die.
August 29th, 2008 09:17
The author of this article is an asshole!! Why the f**k is this article still online!?!?!
August 14th, 2008 04:36
Thanks to Kyle, Hanoszi and abhishek, I just followed the latters post and it worked thank god,when I get the chance vista is coming off this laptop, for too intrusive, pervasive, controlling, I could go on and on
August 7th, 2008 09:18
im unabashedly nothing like as computer savvy as some people and i was stupid enough to try this command without first reading the comments
luckily for me my computer simply didn’t recognise it as a command but just in case i tried the other one too,which it didnt recognise either
either way it made fuck all difference, i still cant run windows movie maker, a bitch for me since im an amateur film maker and wmm is the only programme i can currently afford.
Only i cant open it
so im fucked till i can afford a new editing programme
It also messes up (DEP that is) my windows dvd creator
Its frustrating as all hell.
SO far, nothing i’ve tried has worked.
I can only hope an official solution will become available in the future and until then i’ll fight the urge to throw my laptop out of a window
August 4th, 2008 21:54
I don’t care if this fix wrecks my machine or not (though I’m fairly confident it won’t.)
My DEP has been stalwart in closing IE8 and the new Rhapsody and it has taken me weeks to finally get them to function.
Thanks very much for the help!
July 13th, 2008 07:09
I agree (more or less) with Koss – if you’re system went down because you turned off DEP, then something is either wrong with your computer, or something is wrong with you.
More than likely, if you built your own computer system or you mod them, then you probablly had enough technical know-how to execute this fix without failure.
If you bought your Dell, Hewlett Crapard, Acer, or other name-brander at that the sleazy Wall-E World, then you probablly shouldn’t have tried this fix till you did a little reading up on it.
July 12th, 2008 13:54
to the author.. thanks.. fixed my FF3 random crashes..
~to everyone who failed~:
wow… for all you people who ‘ruined’ your computers and are here bitching.. you must be absolute fucking idiots for not having enough sense to realize you have 0 technical capacity and should perhaps seek the assistance of someone with a clue…
how the hell can you go wrong and ‘ruin’ your system with this command? such accomplishments must require unheard of levels of stupidity…
June 24th, 2008 11:17
Kyle, you are god, thank you. That fixed it.
June 24th, 2008 11:06
Oh yeah, bad idea!!! Do not run this command in Vista, kills system. I’m sitting here watching startup repair. YOU SUCK.
June 5th, 2008 04:50
DEP crashed my Adobe Acrobat 8 every time I tried to do a Twain (i.e., non-WIA) scan…
After trying everything else, Adobe Support referred me to this page as a workaround to the problem.
While the explanation in the article of how to turn it off is not the clearest, I turned off the crap DEP protection, and guess what:
MY ADOBE ACROBAT 8 NOW WORKS!!!
MicroSoft’s solution (DEP) is worse than the problem…what good is DEP if it crashes legitimate programs?
June 2nd, 2008 08:48
Data Execution Prevention is crap – another way for someone else to exercise control over MY computer. Sure, there are malicious programs, trojans, and viri out there that could be prevented by DEP. However, it seems that the problems of having it on far outweigh the benfits.
One of the reasons I turned DEP off was that it killed Windows Movie Maker, Windows DVD Maker, and every other video program I had on my computer, not to mention that every time I tried to look at a folder that contained .AVI files, it would crash Windows Explorer. Also, lets not get me started on the damn COM SURROGATE errors…
Anyway, I lived without this little “darling” piece of Windows Code for ten years before Windows Vista came along, and if it’s going to keep on being a problem, i’ll live another ten without it!
May 9th, 2008 18:08
[...] Prevention issue with it. This morning I just get getting DEP errors every time I ran it. I could turn DEP off, but I’m not comfortable doing that for this reason, because of the previous crashes that [...]
April 21st, 2008 07:53
to reverse the problem get to a command prompt (use the windows boot disk if you have to to start recovery options) then do this
bcdedit.exe /set {default} nx AlwaysOn
beacuse once your in the recovery mode its not “current” its default you can verify its on before rebooting by typing
bcdedit.exe it will show
nx AlwaysOn
this will allow your computer to boot normally and then once back in windows do
bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx OptIn
to give you back your DEP options (aka remove the greyed out)
I hope this helps
March 21st, 2008 23:20
nothing from the above is working my pc is fuckup and all myb work and drawing is inside
i loset a lot of work from stupid DEP shit
how to take if off pleaaaseeeeee
i am loosing big money and time from it
March 18th, 2008 12:09
If you hav an Acer computer using the eDataSecurity Management there is an update that fixes this, there is something with the Messenger Live encryption that the DEP picks up on and that is why it closes it. The update can be found here: http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/forms/portal20.cfm?recordid=1130&formid=3390&website=AcerPanAm.com/canada&siteid=7297&words=all&keywords=&areaid=17
PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS!!!!!!
It did work for me. Hope that is works for you
February 28th, 2008 14:52
this works.
bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx optin
i got back my dep options. thanks kyle
January 15th, 2008 02:36
Caution: Following these instructions also messed up my system, no programs would launch. It may be something about my system, but Kyle’s ‘OptIn’ solution also did not work to fix this for me.
The only thing that could solve my problems was to do a full system restore. I would discourage anyone from following these instructions at all.
Try at own risk!
January 13th, 2008 04:28
All what you have to do to TURN ON your DEP after all is type bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx OptIn
It is very importing to type exacly this words even with big and samall letters. Afer that you can type bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOn
January 1st, 2008 03:15
THIS ARTCILE IS WRONG WILL MESS UP YOUR COMPUTER.
Can I just say the Kyle is a legend. I thought that I was going to have to take my computer to the scrapheap as nothing was working. I did what he said and everythings back to normal. I owe you big time mate! And as for the guy that wrote the article – well words that nasty refuse to come out my mouth!
Dont make the same mistake as I did and spend half of new years eve begging your computer to go back to normal!
November 14th, 2007 08:41
This guy is an asshole. I’m definitely not taking any advice from anyone without looking at the comments now.
Thank god for system restore though, haha.
November 13th, 2007 00:46
Hi sorry for any error. You can turn DEP back on to solve the issue.
November 13th, 2007 00:38
Yeah, screwed up my system too. Thanks to kyle it’s working again. Next time I’ll read the comments first before trusting some shitty advise of an unknown website.
October 25th, 2007 00:49
thx kyle for that tip.
Do not disable DEP as described in this article. It does not work and will drive you crazy.
September 28th, 2007 22:28
hi! can you help me. i can’t download ym. this was the message that prompted after i click run.
Data Execution Prevention
A windows security settings has detected a problem and closed this program
Name: Yahoo! suite installer.
how can i download ym..pls. help. thank
August 16th, 2007 22:24
After enabling AlwaysOn DEP I started getting errors when launching Firefox. I’m not certain if it was caused by a recent update or one of my Add-Ins. I’m going to need to do a complete uninstall and try again.
Besides that, however, I haven’t run into any other issues in any of my programs.
The individuals above that were having issues with Explorer crashing were probably using wonky third party shell extensions.
Their experiences show just why you should never let things integrate with your shell.
June 7th, 2007 14:16
i have found a fix for the above problems you type in the cmd prompt the original line to turn the dep back on but you also type in
bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx optin and that will turn the dep options back on but once again thanks for nothing ower of the site that doesnt respond to any posts thats is rediculous
June 3rd, 2007 12:11
Same problem as above poster. DEP off did a number on my system. Explorer no longer works. ICQ no longer works. Cannot turn DEP back on with the command. It says it is successful but after a reboot it is still off. So far I am unable to fix this issue and likely will have to redo my entire system to fix it. DO NOT DO THIS IT WILL FUCK UP YOUR PC!
May 23rd, 2007 08:28
BIG PROBLEMS i did like you explained and installed a new game and the DEP prevented it from running so i went to add the program to the list and its all grayed out cant select anything. so i turned it back on and restarted and the DEP is still grayed out. so i tried to restore back to before i changed the DEP and the DEP is still the same!???