strange Windows error message - DEP
 

Data Execution Prevention - Microsoft Windows

This was the window that came up as I booted up my laptop today... its never popped up before... can someone help me out to decifer what it means exactly...?

Thanks,
Gaucho100K

And then... after I just closed the above mentioned window.... I immediatetly get another window....

WMI

WMI encountered a problem and needed to close....

Good lord, am I the only person in the world who knows how to use Google? :D :D :D

http://www.djkaty.com/wmicorruption for help with possible WMI corruption.

Data Execution Prevention is usually linked to a specific program. It's a feature of Windows. You might have picked up a virus or worm, or it might be related to WMI corruption.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Execution_Prevention

If a restart doesn't clear things up, the next easiest thing might be to do a System Restore to a point before the last automatic Windows Update (assuming you have automatic updates set).

But I have NOD32 installed..... how could I have a worm...?? Now Im worried.... what do I need to about this...?

I restarted the computer and all seems ok...... but now this worm thing has me worried. What should I do...??

Check the System and Application logs (event viewer) to see what caused the DEP. Uninstall, reinstall, upgrade or downgrade that component as appropriate.

Well, you could do what my mom always said: "When in trouble, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." :D :D :D

Or...you could relax. Most likely it was a transient burp and everything's peachy now.

If you're really paranoid, download AVAST anti-virus (free) and install it.

Data Execution Protection is a safety feature. If a piece of memory marked as data tries to execute you get the error if it's turned on.

There are a few sloppily-written programs that do this (such techniques used to be reasonably common in the old days but haven't been a good idea for a long time now), more often it's caused by something hostile trying to subvert the system--many subversion attacks are based on getting a program to execute data.

If you didn't install something new it likely means malware, although it might very well have stopped the attack.

Wirelessly posted (Palm TX: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D050; Blazer/4.3) 16;320x448)

I have some screen shots of the error... will post later.

The error log might be more useful.

OK... how do I go about copying and pasting that....?

Right click on "my computer" select, "Manage." Expand the, "event viewer."

Check both system and application logs for around the time you had the issue. You can open the messages for detail and paste screen shots. Just make sure that any private info isn't there (routable IP addresses, for example).

You can also expand the action pane (show/hide action pane button) and export the log to a text file.