Problem with DEP

[tony cooper]

My Windows XP PC has acquired a problem. When certain things are
clicked on the Desktop, I get a pop-up that says that "To help protect
your computer, Windows has closed this program" and refers to the Data
Execution Prevention Program.

The "certain things" are folders which contain shortcut links to
programs. Rather than have a shortcut link icon on the desktop for
each program that I use, I group them by category (Graphics,
Photography, Word/Data, etc). The individual programs can be opened
individually by going to Start>"All Programs", but can't be accessed
in the desktop folder.

The problem also occurs when I click "My Computer" in Start, but I can
sometimes get to "My Computer" and sometimes not.

I know I can turn off DEP, but I'd like to know why it's activated.

I keep AVG Anti-Virus active and updated, and have scanned for
problems. None show.

 

[AJR]

DEP is as proprietary function of AMD nx processors.
supported by all 32 bit Windows versions - processor must be running in
Physixcal Address Extension (PAE) mode - prevents malicious code from
inserting itself in memory. DEP tells the processor to mark all memory
locations in an application as non-executable for other than legit code.

Applications must be programmed to support DEP- the default setting applies
only to essential OS services and programs.

Proceedure would be to identufy "offending" programs and DEP exceptions.