Check The Status Of Data Execution Prevention Feature In Your Windows Vista
Windows Vista offers a powerful security feature known as DEP (Data Execution Prevention) which protects your PC from malicious software. DEP basically prevents execution of software from non-executable memory locations thus preventing any malicious software from harming your system. You need to configure DEP before it can start operating completely.
Eventually, this security tool might unintentionally shut down some genuine processes. However, Windows offers you with an option of enabling or disabling this service as per your preference. If you feel a need to check whether this DEP feature is activated or deactivated on your system, you need to follow the below mentioned steps.
- You need to launch the command prompt as an administrator with elevated privileges. For doing so, you need to logon to Vista as an administrator (user account having admin rights). Right-click on Command Prompt icon. From the right-click context menu that appears, select the option “Run as Administrator”.
- Type in the below mentioned command in the command prompt and press “Enter”.
wmic OS Get DataExecutionPrevention_SupportPolicy
You will see a number display on your screen. The displayed number indicates the status of DEP feature as mentioned below:
-
“0” stands for “AlwaysOff” which indicates that DEP is disabled or deactivated for all processes.
-
“1” stands for “AlwaysOn” which indicates that DEP is enabled or activated for all processes.
-
“2” stands for “OptIn” which is the setting by default and indicates that DEP is enabled or activated for Windows system services and components.
-
“3” stands for “OptOut” which indicates that DEP is enabled or activated for all processes apart from those which are Administrators identified.