Managing Windows Data Execution Protection issues with Eclipse

Following the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1, Microsoft released with little or no fanfare a new technology called 'Data Execution Protection' and included this with these operating systems. Data Execution Protection (or DEP as it will be referred to) is a way that Microsoft have partnered with certain hardware manufacturers (processor, motherboard, chipset, etc.) to attempt to thwart known viruses & malware from infecting a targeted system. By intercepting certain low level calls, Microsoft can shut down an application if it considers that it is a possible threat to the integrity of the user's computer.

Unfortunately this technology is in its infancy and many programs (including certain Microsoft programs such as Exchange server) are interfered with due to DEP. The common symptom of a program being affected by DEP is that it will shut down unexpectedly, most of the time when it first attempts to launch on the computer. For more information about DEP, you can read about it on Microsoft's web site at:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352

On certain hardware, Eclipse can have issues relating to DEP. We have had this reported to us on a minor number of cases, however as new hardware is coming out all the time and it appears that Microsoft will continue to include and expand upon DEP for Windows Vista, we felt that a full explanation of what can be done to turn off DEP would be of assistance to our customers.

If you are not running Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP1, you are not affected by DEP.

If you are running either of these operating systems, both on the client or the server of your system, then you should turn OFF DEP to ensure that Eclipse single user, 4D Client or 4D Server applications execute without interruption. Follow the instructions below for a full explanation of how to do this.

Step 1 - Check if you have DEP on your computer (Windows XP SP2)

To determine if you have DEP on your computer, do the following:

Go to the desktop of your computer, and right click on the 'My Computer' icon. Select Properties.

Then you will see a window with tabs like so:

Select the Advanced tab, which will give you the following window. Click on the Settings button in the Performance section:

You will then see the following screen. Click on the Data Execution Protection tab:

The following window will now be displayed. This is where you can control how your system works with applications and allow applications to bypass DEP.

The first radio button on this form allows you to restrict DEP to only work with essential Windows programs & services. From our experience, selecting this radio button has the best effect to curb issues relating to DEP incorrectly intercepting the operation of Eclipse, 4D Client or 4D Server. Therefore we would recommend that you have this option set. However if you wish, you can specifically exclude Eclipse from DEP. The process for setting this up requires that you find the ECLIPSE.EXE file on your computer that is run and have it added to the list in the form. The same is true for 4DClient.exe and 4DServer.exe. Rather than going to this level of detail, you can simply bypass DEP with the first radio button and this should remove it from scanning Eclipse or its sister applications during operation. We would suggest this option.

From our experience, 90% of all customers reporting that their 4D Client or Eclipse application would not startup correctly on launch appear to have this corrected with DEP removal. However if you are experiencing this problem for some other reason, please contact our technical support department for further assistance.

We hope this information helps in your use of our products.