Back in 2009, we explained how to disable DEP in Windows 7. While it might be necessary to disable in some cases, you should in general never disable DEP, because it keeps your system secure.
If a program does not reserve enough memory for a process it can happen that a process will use more memory than it’s allowed to. It can then cause memory errors, a program crash or it can be used for exploitation. A buffer overflow leaves the door wide open for all kinds of exploits by corrupting data and overwriting settings.
Data Execution Prevention (DEP) can prevent that applications may access memory that wasn’t assigned for the process and lies in another memory region. As you can see DEP is not a feature you want to mess around with.
My tip: If you don’t know what DEP is and what effects it has on your system you better NEVER disable DEP in Windows 7.
This was another security tip for Windows 7. For more security tips check out this category: Security Tips for Windows 7
