Microsoft Enables Memory Integrity by Default on Windows 11

Microsoft is rolling out an update in October that will enable Memory Integrity by default on Windows 11. This feature uses virtualized environment to verify kernel-mode drivers before they execute, ensuring they're safe from malware.

This change may cause performance dips for users with older hardware, but those with modern systems won't notice a difference. In fact, Intel's 7th generation and AMD's Ryzen 2000 generation onwards have hardware-level acceleration that minimizes the impact of this feature.

To confirm your system meets the requirements, check if you have an Intel 8th-generation processor or newer, AMD Zen 2 processor or newer, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8180 SoC or newer, at least 8GB of RAM on x64 systems, and at least 64GB of SSD storage space.

Users who have already explicitly disabled Memory Integrity via the registry or a Windows Group Policy change won't be affected by this update. However, those using older drivers for legacy devices may still want to disable it as there's a chance Memory Integrity can break these drivers that need to interact with memory in insecure ways.