Overzealous DEP in Vista

I haven't had a single problem with my copy since I got it 6 months ago. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised with it. But today, it all fell apart, and surprisingly quickly.

Appearantly, there is a program called Data Execution Protection that was introduced in XP Sp2. It's job was to keep malware and other "bad" programs from executing codes in sensitive areas of the memory. Here's a good summary of it:http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=100.

Anyway, I didn't even know this existed until today. There was a Windows Update I installed on 11/9, but I didn't restart my computer until today (11/11). As soon as I did, I got error messages. 8 of my 12 startup programs crashed immediately, and an accompanying 8 little bubbles popped up on my taskbar stating "<program> was deemed harmful by DEP, and shut down." Now, these aren't even my risque programs. It was stuff like the Ares P2P program, my google toolbar, itunes.

So, I scratched my head and got on the net. Obviously, I needed to turn this thing off. Found a guide at http://www.realtime-vista.com/administration/2007/04/disabling_data_execution_preve.htm, did that. Tried again to run the programs, they crashed again, this time for no appearant reason.

I restarted my computer, and now DEP is disabling my internet explorer when I attempt to open it, so I can't even get on the internet. Well, I was hoping that wasn't a malicious program.

So, now I'm thinking I have a malware infection disguised as this DEP thing I've never heard of, or maybe DEP has gone rogue and is keeping my PC locked down.

I've already attempted to System Restore before the last Windows Update, I've deinstalled all my new programs to before the incident, to no avail. I also called Microsoft Tech Support, and surprise, surprise; they're closed for the holidays.

Anyone here have any familiarity with bugs of this type? Anyone have any experience with DEP? Anything you could tell me would be invaluable. Thanks.

 

Not familar with this bug, did you try uninstalling the update? go to control panel, windows update, in the left pane view update history. ed