Update on Internet Explorer 7, DEP and Adobe Software

Because browsers can host plug-in extensibility, security settings within the browser can make plug-ins fail. This is why in Internet Explorer 7 Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is off by default. When it is enabled many plug-in components fail to run, often crashing the browser.

 

You can enable DEP by navigating to the following dialog and checking the highlighted option shown below (note, you must elevated to admin first, otherwise the option is grayed out):

 

 

I have some great news, however.

 

Two of the most well-known and commonly used browser plug-ins, the Adobe Acrobat/Reader browser helper object and the Adobe Flash Player, now run when DEP is enabled.

 

So jump on over to the Adobe site, download the latest versions of Flash Player and Acrobat Reader, and enable DEP in IE7! I have!

 

A Big Thanks to the folks at Adobe for doing this.

Comments

• Anonymous
  December 12, 2006
  Is this DEP option available only on Vista IE7?

• Anonymous
  December 12, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  December 12, 2006
  Because browsers can host plug-in extensibility, security settings within the browser can make plug-ins

• Anonymous
  December 13, 2006
  Have you tried it with Java? Don't think we can work around it needing to JIT on the heap.

• Anonymous
  December 15, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  December 15, 2006
  Doug DEP is also available in Windows XPSP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1.

• Anonymous
  December 15, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  December 15, 2006
  IE Guy >>Have you tried it with Java We haven't tried all JVMs. The Sun JVM does fail when DEP is enabled.

• Anonymous
  December 18, 2006
  I don't even see that option in IE7...

• Anonymous
  December 19, 2006
  [Default] Spotlight on: Visual Studio Team System for Database Professionals Visual Studio 2005 Team

• Anonymous
  December 19, 2006
  Scott - this is an option in IE7 on Windows Vista.

• Anonymous
  December 26, 2006
  Thanks

• Anonymous
  December 28, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  December 29, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 22, 2007
  My co-workers and I couldn't find the feature you mention above, on our IE7 Internet Option settings. The "Enable memory protection to help mitigate online attacks" is not there. Any ideas?

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2007
  One of the most basic conundrums in computer security is the constant trade-off between security and

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2007
  So DEP and Java (Sun VM) is out of the question? That sort of makes it a no-go for a lot of users... Can anything be done about that?

• Anonymous
  January 24, 2007
  Hana - are you using Windows Vista? this option is only in IE7 on Vista.

• Anonymous
  January 24, 2007
  noocyte, we're working on it:)

• Anonymous
  January 24, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 28, 2007
  Great! Keep us updated when Java and DEP works together, that's the day I'll activate it. For now my online bank requires Java...

• Anonymous
  February 04, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 05, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 06, 2007
  Why wouldn't MS implement the user-interface such that the user could turn this feature on/off based on specific plugins? As is, one has to completely turn it off if you need just one plugin to run that is incompatible with it.

• Anonymous
  February 15, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 27, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 27, 2007
  Loretta, you shouldn't get any DEP errors in IE becuase it's not enabled by default. If you're getting this error, it's from something else, or you have enabled DEP in IE.

• Anonymous
  March 04, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 04, 2007
  Just turn off DEP for IE7 for the moment, and re-enabled DEP for the OS. We're aware of the Sun JVM issues, and we're on it!

• Anonymous
  March 06, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 10, 2007
  I hope with Windows Vista SP1, the DEP will be ON by default, in IE7. It was a mistake put DEP off in IE7 because otherwise lazy add-on's programmers will still write bad code.  

• Anonymous
  April 08, 2008
  Eric Lawrence just posted some commentary about IE8 and DEP/NX. As you may know, IE7 supports DEP/NX,

• Anonymous
  June 19, 2008
  We wtorek swoją premierę miał Firefox 3. W jednej wypowiedzi Window Snyder powiedziała: In setting out to elevate Firefox's basic security, Snyder is also compelling Microsoft and Apple, maker of the Safari browser, to follow her lead — or get ou

• Anonymous
  September 07, 2008
  The comment has been removed