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[SAS~Storebror]

Dear SAS members, dear guests,

Lately, several users independently reported startup issues with their IL-2 game instances, and all of them could eventually be nailed down to DEP (Data Execution Prevention) being enabled for all processes accidentally.
Without trying to understand what makes people tinker with important system settings like this, without even knowing what they do and what the side effects will be, let me try to show you how to get out of it again.

What Is Data Execution Prevention in Windows 10/11?
Data Execution Prevention or DEP is a Windows built-in feature that offers an extra layer of security for your Windows computer. It can help prevent your computer from virus attacks or other security threats.
In detail, DEP utilizes a set of hardware and software technologies to conduct additional checks on Windows computer memory to prevent malicious code from loading on a system and monitor your computer programs to use system memory safely.
In other words, there are some memory areas in Windows computers that don’t allow codes to run. If some codes are running there, they might be malicious.
Therefore, if Data Execution Prevention finds some programs are using computer RAM in a suspicious way, it will shut them down to protect the safety of your computer system.

What Programs Might Conflict with DEP Windows 10/11?
Programs built with old codebases, old 32-bit programs or games, old device drivers, etc. are likely to conflict with DEP Windows 10/11.
If some programs on your Windows 10/11 computer can’t work well or shut down with no notice. How do you know if it is caused by DEP?

You can click Start, type event viewer, and click Event Viewer app to open Windows Event Viewer on Windows 10/11. Scroll down the log list to check if there is an Event ID 1000 DEP error. If you find one, then a program may have problems with DEP.

As luck has it, IL-2 is one of those applications that contain executable code in "suspicious" areas in RAM, hence you must not enforce DEP on IL-2 processes.

Here is how to Disable/Enable Data Execution Prevention (DEP) in Windows 11 or 10

Go to the desktop and make a right-click on This PC icon. From the context menu, select Properties.


From the Settings app that opens up, click Advanced system settings.


On the System Properties dialog, switch to the Advanced tab. Moving further, hit the Settings button underneath the Performance section.


This will open Performance Options dialog on the PC screen. Shift to the Data Execution Prevention tab. Here, you will see two options namely:


“Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only“: This is the default setting. Use this. It will provide protection against threats and viruses for certain services and applications of Windows only.
If you chose this, then you can skip anything below this line - you're fine now.

“Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select“: It is the second option. Not just Windows processes only, this option will also enable the feature for all processes.
If you chose this option, you will need to add all il2fb.exe instances on your PC to the DEP exclusion list using the "Add" button for each of them:


Here is how to Disable/Enable Data Execution Prevention (DEP) in Windows 11 or 10 using command line interface
If you dislike walking through the ever-changing graphical interfaces of Windows (like me), alternatively you can use the command prompt.
Open Run dialog box by hitting “Win + R” hotkeys altogether. Here, type cmd and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
When UAC prompts up, hit Yes to proceed ahead.
Now, on the Command Prompt window, type or copy/paste this given below command and then hit Enter.

Code: [Select]

bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx OptIn
Your prompt should reply with "The operation completed successfully."

Reboot your PC to apply the command line setting.


Mike

[KingTiger503]

Thanks for the Info Mike.


Best Regards KT503

[Kopfdorfer]

Thanks Mike for the concise explanation , and the pictures.
Pictures GOOD!
From someone who deeply fears the inner workings of the
black box , this kind of explanation is necessary from time to time ;
it is even soothing.

Thanks again.

Kopfdorfer

[oldschoolie]

This is very helpful. I am grateful. Sadly I went through the trauma of wiping the HD and replacing Windows 10 with 11 (which I don't recommend as Microsoft has done the usual trick of removing some simple operations with more complicated ones. Eg you can't reduce the size of a GUI graphic without going into REG EDIT. I ask you!). Fortunately my back up versions copied across OK.

[Ranwers]

Thank You Master.
It helped me.

[UberDemon]

Thank you Master!

[Flamer50]

Mike,
Thanks Very Much for your DEP guide
 
Flamer'

[Draken]

I am able to join  a multiplayer server as player , but when I try to host an online mission , other players cannot join my mission ( they get a " timeout " error ) .

Is this due to DEP , please ?

[SAS~Storebror]

That's not DEP, it's a firewall + port forwarding thing.
Needs a bit of PC and network knowledge to tackle this and sorry, but there's no "fits all sizes" guide available as settings depend very much on the operating system, additional tools and router model in use.

The guys from RAF662 tried to create a guide nevertheless and to me it looks as good as it gets:
https://raf662.org/docs/DaddyOsHostingTIPS.pdf


Mike

[Draken]

Thanks !

[WhiteSnake1976]

Thanks !

The IP's in that guide are the writers own IP numbers, yours are probably diferent.
Ports should be all the same.

What i do not see in that Guide is to Lock your Local IP adres to the PC, otherwise it could change every time you turn the PC on and Off.

It can also be your External IP changes trough your Provider, so you need to look and make sure your IP has not changes if your friends are trying to join trough the game it self by IP.

Here is an other useful site which should list your Router and most games, and for this game they are TCP: 21000 and UDP: 21000
https://portforward.com/

[Airbourne]

I would just like to add that the DEP problem is not always due to people fiddling with settings they don't understand. If you use Avast you will find that every time it upgrades it automatically changes the DEP setting so that Il-2 is blocked. I suspect that other security programs do the same.