In laymen's terms, perhaps even less technical then laymen's terms..., can you tell me why, when I open certain folders on my computer (such as Mp3 or Jpeg folders) I get a pop up called "Data Execution Prevention" which states "To protect your computer, windows has closed this program." I press close and an error report is sent. 1. Why does this happen? 2. How can I fix/prevent this from happening again?

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Well, most likely a program that handles mp3s or jpegs is corrupt, or infected with 
malware.. As an mp3 and a jpeg is not executable code, it is not those files that 
are causing the error.. It is the software behind the scenes that is trying to produce 
thumbnails or something like that.

You can turn DEP off in the advanced options of your system properties.  I wouldn't 
recommend that though.. I think it is on by default, and I have never actually seen 
that error, so it can't be troublesome, it is probably a sign of something that you 
need to fix.

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Any ideas how I can fix it???


On Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 6:34 am, appleoddity wrote:
>

>Well, most likely a program that handles mp3s or jpegs is corrupt, or infected with
>malware.. As an mp3 and a jpeg is not executable code, it is not those files that
>are causing the error.. It is the software behind the scenes that is trying to produce
>thumbnails or something like that.
>
>You can turn DEP off in the advanced options of your system properties. I wouldn't
>recommend that though.. I think it is on by default, and I have never actually seen
>that error, so it can't be troublesome, it is probably a sign of something that you
>need to fix.
>

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Well, I do know the DEP is used to help protect you from malware infections. (doesn't 
seem to work, judging from the number of infected PCs I see) So, you may want to 
make sure your PC is clean from malware to start with.  But, to be honest, I'm not 
sure where to go from here.

Basic troubleshooting steps that I would follow, if I were you, would be to run a 
chkdsk /f to verify there are no hard drive problems.. Then I would use msconfig 
to disable all non-essential system services and startup items.. Then see if the 
error still exists.  If it does not cause you an error, you can turn services and 
startup items back on in small groups until the error resurfaces, and then eliminate 
the program that is causing the problem.

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