What is "Data Execution Prevention" (DEP) and How Do I Stop the Errors?

Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is part of Windows and is perfectly safe. It's very effective at blocking malware even if the vulnerability being exploited hasn't even been publicly exposed yet and is, therefore, not caught by your Anti-virus program.

The problem is that sometimes it is over-zealous and stops 'good' programs from working! So, what do you do? You could just turn it off but I will show you how to configure so that it doesn't stop your good program from working.

Configuring and Turning Off DEP

• Right click on My Computer

• Click on Properties

• Click on the Advanced tab

• Click on the Settings button in the Performance section

• Click on the Data Execution Prevention tab

You should now see something like this:

To turn off DEP: select the item labeled "Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only". This, effectively turns off DEP for everything else.

However, I think it is better and safer to keep it running and just add your 'good' program to the list of exceptions.

Configure Exceptions to DEP

As you can see in the image above, the default DEP setting is to "Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select:". So, a much better way to get any legitimate program causing DEP errors to work again is to add that program to the exception list.

Click on the Add... button. Now, locate the program's ".exe" file (this will be found on your C: drive under "progam files" and in the program's folder:

In this example the program was located in " C:\Program Files\Foxit Software\Foxit Reader\Foxit Reader.exe".

You will now see your progrma in the exceptions list:

Thanks to Ask-Leo for the images.

OS (Windows etc)