220-1102 Software Troubleshooting Practice Question

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

• ✗

  Reinstall the application in compatibility mode

  Why it's wrong here

  Compatibility mode instructs Windows to emulate an earlier OS version, which primarily alters API behavior and UI presentation, but it does not change how the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) policy is applied to the process. The 0xc0000005 error is an access violation triggered when an application attempts to execute code from a non-executable memory page, a DEP enforcement action that compatibility settings ignore. Reinstalling the application through this mode would not address the underlying page protection violation, so it is an ineffective remedy in this scenario.

• ✓

  Disable Data Execution Prevention (DEP) for the application

  Why this is correct

  Disabling DEP for the application is the correct solution because 0xc0000005 is typically the STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION raised when the DEP feature prevents a 32-bit program from executing code from a data page. DEP is a security mechanism, supported by the CPU's NX (No Execute) bit, that marks stack and heap pages as non-executable; some older 32-bit applications rely on just-in-time code generation or dynamically generated code that violates this policy. By adding the executable to the DEP opt-out exception list in System Properties, you allow that specific process to run without DEP enforcement while keeping DEP active for the rest of the system.

• ✗

  Install the latest Windows updates

  Why it's wrong here

  Windows Update delivers security patches, driver updates, and OS compatibility fixes, but it does not modify the local DEP exception list for a specific legacy application. You noted that SFC and DISM scans reported no system file corruption, which rules out missing or damaged system binaries that an update could restore. Because the failure is a per-process DEP violation, not a flaw in the OS's installed files, installing the latest cumulative update would not prevent the access violation.

• ✗

  Increase virtual memory

  Why it's wrong here

  Increasing virtual memory expands the paging file, which is used to back memory pages that fall outside the physical RAM capacity, but 0xc0000005 is an access permission violation, not an insufficient-memory condition. DEP flags a page as non-executable, and when a process tries to execute that page, the CPU raises the exception regardless of how much virtual address space or page file space is available. Adjusting the paging file size does not alter executable-page permissions, so this action cannot resolve the failure.

Go deeper

Related to this question