Data Execution Prevention has closed Windows Mail

[Mickey Segal]

For the past few weeks I've been getting episodes of Windows Mail closing
and reporting that "Data Execution Prevention has closed Windows Mail". It
seems to occur when I'm in the middle of preparing a message - it has never
occurred when I clicked "Send/Receive". The problem first occurred a few
hours after receiving a message with three PDFs totaling 5 MB in size.

When this first occurred I had the current version of NOD32 (3.0.642)
running but I turned off email scanning and the problem still happens every
few days. On two of the crashes Windows Mail reported it couldn't find a
few messages, and some messages were gone from my Inbox, but after deleting
one or two such messages I was able to get back all the missing email.

Is the best bet that NOD32 corrupted my email files? Are there other
possibilities I should be thinking of or testing for? Is there some way to
keep things like this from happening without ditching all my old mail?

Compacting the email database didn't fix the problem.

 

[Guest]

For the past few weeks I've been getting episodes of Windows Mail closing
and reporting that "Data Execution Prevention has closed Windows Mail".
It seems to occur when I'm in the middle of preparing a message - it has
never occurred when I clicked "Send/Receive". The problem first occurred
a few hours after receiving a message with three PDFs totaling 5 MB in
size.

When this first occurred I had the current version of NOD32 (3.0.642)
running but I turned off email scanning and the problem still happens
every few days. On two of the crashes Windows Mail reported it couldn't
find a few messages, and some messages were gone from my Inbox, but after
deleting one or two such messages I was able to get back all the missing
email.

Is the best bet that NOD32 corrupted my email files? Are there other
possibilities I should be thinking of or testing for? Is there some way
to keep things like this from happening without ditching all my old mail?

Compacting the email database didn't fix the problem.

I think I've read that a recent update of NOD32 (details not available)
made it start causing problems in Windows Mail. You could always try
uninstalling NOD32 and see if that helps. If it does, also remove your
email account under Windows Mail, restart Windows Mail, and create
the account again in case it has corrupted the account.

If this fixes your problem, you may want a replacement antivirus program
that doesn't cause such problems. I suggest either avast! or AVG,
either one with a custom install that tells it to leave out the part that
scans
email.

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/us/frt/0?prd=aff

If you're using it for a business, you may be required to use a paid
version of either of these instead of the free version.

 

[Mickey Segal]

I had reported a problem with a pervious version of NOD32 in the thread
"NOD32 messing up separation between different account in Windows Mail".
The new version fixes that problem but I'm wondering whether it causes this
new problem.

If I have NOD32 email scanning turned off and the problem still occurs is it
likely to be fixed by uninstalling NOD32?

 

[Guest]

Sorry, I haven't read enough about the NOD32 problem to have an
answer for that.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

I would first delete, then recreate the email account. If that doesn't cure the
problem, uninstall NOD32.

 

[Mickey Segal]

I looked at the Windows Mail files and found a recovery folder and lots of
0KB files that appeared to be debris from previous events. In addition,
many of my folders were still in Local Folders, an echo of my having brought
the email over from Outlook Express, and there were a lot of eml files in
the Windows Mail folder itself. I decided to clean all of that up before
doing anything, and so far so good. If the problem doesn't come back I
would be inclined to believe that cleaning up the debris restored the karma
of Windows Mail.

BTW, one annoying thing about NOD32 is that when I uncheck "Enable email
protection" and reboot, NOD32 enables email protection. Also, when I
disable all protection to do an installation, re-enabling protection
reinstates all forms of protection, including email protection. Does anyone
know how to be more firm in getting NOD32 to turn off email protection?

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

I've never used NOD32, so I can't advise you how to shut down
its email scanning permanently. If it doesn't have that option
(permanently disabling email scanning), I'd get rid of it.

 

[Mickey Segal]

Windows Mail crashed again today. The crashes always seem to happen when I
have multiple messages open. Typically I have one message open (and at
least most of the time saved in Drafts) and then I go to some other message
folder within Windows Mail to find an old message to quote. The identity of
the opened folder seems to be different each time. I don't remember if I
was always doing a text search of a folder, but that may be the case.

I did not see debris from the crash in the Windows Mail folder other than a
bunch of log files.

Does this ring any bells?

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Have you uninstalled NOD32 yet?

 

[Mickey Segal]

I haven't uninstalled NOD32, but email scanning was definitely off during
today's DEP episode.

Is there some log of DEP events that gives insight? I see that there is a
way of turning off DEP for a particular program, but I'm not enthusiastic
about doing that or completely getting rid of NOD32.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Temporarily uninstalling NOD32 (as a test) does not necessarily mean
getting rid of it for good. If there is no improvement, reinstall NOD32.

As far as your question about DEP events, I don't know, you would
have to ask that in the Vista security newsgroup.

 

[Mickey Segal]

The mean time between failures is several days, so unless I can find some
way of triggering the failures at will it means that I'd be running without
antivirus software for a few days.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

If that worries you, you could install one of the compatible free
antivirus products temporarily:

AVG free edition:
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/us/frt/0?prd=aff
or
Avast free edition:
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

With either of those, during the install phase you must select custom
install, and then deselect the email scanning option.

 

[Mickey Segal]

I haven't gotten any more of the crashes. It seems that all occurred when I
had more than one message window open, some thing I've tried to avoid over
the past week. It is not clear whether this problem has anything to do with
NOD32 at all. I'd be interested in whether other people see such crashes as
well.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Having multiple message windows open should not cause a crash.
It doesn't for me.

 

[Guest]

I am having the same problem, except it occurs as soon as I open up
Windows Mail. It immediately crashes with a DEP has closed Windows
error. I have no idea what NOD32 is... an anti-virus? I'm running
PCillin on my laptop right now. I don't know what could have casued this
to start happening... I've been trying to install some games (with
little to no success) on here the past few days, but that's about it. I
am running a Dell XPS MXG071 with Vista Home Premium 32bit. Would trying
to reinstall Windows Mail help or not?

NOD32 is an antivirus, one we no longer recommend after some versions
started causing problems with Windows Mail. If you have it, you may
need to uninstall it.

Is that PCillin from Trend? If so, a recent version of the Trend antivirus
program (details not available) causes assorted problems in Windows
Mail, and disabling it seldom helps. You usually have to uninstall it
instead. You may then need to remove your email account under
Windows Mail, then restart Windows Mail and add the account again.

Having more than one antivirus program installed at a time is not a good
idea; it tends to cause assorted problems, not only in Windows Mail.

If this cures your problem but leaves you without an antivirus program,
you may want a replacement antivirus program that doesn't cause such
problems. Most versions of the Norton and McAfee antivirus programs
are bad choices; we see reports of the problems they cause in Windows
Mail more often than reports of problems caused by any other programs.
I recommend either avast! or AVG, either one with a custom install
where you tell it to leave out the part that scans email.

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

http://free.grisoft.com/ww.download?prd=afe

http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm

http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3