I posted that quick link to the Intel documentation so you or others could learn more about what it does and then you can make up your own mind whether you want it on or off.Originally Posted by Clint
I'm always interested in learning Clint. Do you know what type of benchmarks show how having the NX bit enabled decreases performance. I've never found any measurable difference in performance during testing but maybe there are programs out there where a performance hit can be measured.
The NX bit enabled has notified me of software that was trying to execute code in an area of memory that was reserved for data. A properly written program does not do that. The only time having the NX bit enabled will stop a program from running is if it is a malicious piece of code executing where it shouldn't be or it's a poorly written piece of code that is likely trying to access an uninitialized null pointer. I don't want either type of code running on my system so I have it enabled.
If you would have made it to page 2 of that link I posted then you would have come across this page which I think is a very thorough document about the NX bit:
http://www3.intel.com/cd/ids/develop...eng/149307.htm
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