// THE VERGE — HARDWARE & GADGET
Microsoft is enabling a Windows 11 security feature that can hurt gaming performance
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Memory integrity could get enabled on your device next month, unless you’ve already disabled it.
Memory integrity could get enabled on your device next month, unless you’ve already disabled it.
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Microsoft is getting ready to roll out its memory integrity security feature of Windows 11 to more devices next month. The kernel-level protection feature is designed to stop malicious code or drivers running on a Windows 11 machine, but Microsoft previously warned it can also impact PC gaming performance.
“Windows quality updates will begin enabling memory integrity protection on eligible devices,” says Peter Waxman, group program manager at Microsoft. “If not already enabled, these updates will also enable Virtualization-based Security (VBS), helping make additional security capabilities available and reflecting our commitment to making Windows secure by design and secure by default.”
While memory integrity only allows trusted kernel-mode code and drivers to run on a Windows 11 system, it also impacts PC game performance on certain hardware. There’s less of an impact if you have a more modern CPU, but you might notice more of a frame-rate drop in select games on older processors. Microsoft won’t automatically enable memory integrity again next month if you’ve already previously disabled the feature.