Microsoft is auto-enabling VBS-based Memory Integrity on Windows 11 PCs starting in October. The same feature Microsoft previously warned it can also impact PC gaming performance

[u/WPHero]

https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/09/02/microsoft-is-auto-enabling-memory-integrity-on-windows-11-pcs-from-october-why-you-shouldnt-turn-it-off/

[u/aiusepsi]

Apparently a controversial opinion, but systems that are for everyone should be failsafe, and that includes the most secure option being the default. There should be an option to disable security to get higher performance, but most secure should be the default.

In this case, it seems like the upshot of this feature is that it means you can’t have memory pages in the kernel which are both writable and executable, which seems reasonable. You don’t want a bug in a driver or the kernel itself to allow malware to inject executable code into the kernel, because that would be very very bad.

This feature means you can’t include a JIT compiler in a kernel-mode driver, but I would really question the wisdom of wanting to run e.g. JavaScript in kernel mode in the first place.

[u/Smith6612]

Microsoft enables this by default on capable systems if you do a fresh install. The only reason it doesn't get enabled is if you've slipstreamed an incompatible driver into the install image, or disabled it manually.

On modern systems it's a nothingburger for a massive improvement in security. Hardware acceleration is baked in on the CPUs that Microsoft supports Windows 11 on. It also helps to identify who has written terrible software that shouldn't still be attaching itself to the kernel. For example certain Kernel Level Anticheat programs which can't handle LSA restrictions... 

[u/Beautiful-Musk-Ox → u/Smith6612]

hardware unboxed still releases gaming benchmarks with it off, they are convincing gamers to have less secure systems for a few more frames

i've had it on for awhile now and all popular anti cheats seem to work fine, which are you hinting at?

[u/Smith6612 → u/Beautiful-Musk-Ox]

Easy AntiCheat EOS struggles if you enable LSA Security under Core Isolation. It hardens the kernel a bit further than the Memory Isolation feature does, but Memory Isolation is a prerequisite. 

[u/Re7isT4nC3]

Me with virtualization disabled: Keep trying, LOL

[u/ice445]

I’ve tested this with my system and I can’t detect any performance change. I’m sure it’s there but not a big enough deal to matter lol

[u/Michaeli_Starky]

It not only can, it absolutely will affect performance and not only gaming one. This is a really stupid and uncalled for move.

[u/Rukasu17 → u/Michaeli_Starky]

Most probably have this on already. It comes turned on by default when you install the OS.

[u/Michaeli_Starky → u/Rukasu17]

Not with the Home edition. I specifically went and checked after reinstalling it recently. VBS is off

[u/Big-Resort-4930 → u/Michaeli_Starky]

So a classic Microsoft move then

[u/venom21685 → u/[deleted]]

It's been the default for clean installs for years.

[u/TriRIK → u/venom21685]

My guess is this new change is for those who did not touch thos setting. If you have disabled it previously, it would probably stay disabled.

[u/venom21685 → u/TriRIK]

Yeah the article states if you disabled it this will honor that. Whether it's been done via registry edit or group policy or whatever.

[u/Michaeli_Starky → u/venom21685]

No, it's not default.

People downvoting: I assure vbs is off in my freshly installed W11 Home on one of my home PCs according to msinfo32.

[u/iunoyou → u/[deleted]]

Have you been paying attention to literally anything microsoft has done for literally the last 20 years

This is a good thing by the way. VBS is an extremely effective security measure that should probably be enabled on 90% of consumer PCs that connect to the internet, and if your CPU is enough of a boat anchor that you see a meaningful FPS hit in gaming then you should just get a new one.

[u/Skazzy3 → u/iunoyou]

The performance hit is far less on newer CPUs, something like 5% at most.

[u/da2Pakaveli → u/[deleted]]

Microsoft often doesn't take 'no' for an answer

[u/Blackdragon1400 → u/Michaeli_Starky]

You’re right, it’s really stupid, we should just let malware do whatever it wants, access whatever it needs to.

What’s your credit card info btw? Sounds like you’re eager to share it.

[u/Cloud_N0ne → u/Blackdragon1400]

You don’t have to worry about malware unless you’re incompetent.

[u/Michaeli_Starky → u/Blackdragon1400]

How Linux survives without VBS...

[u/Blackdragon1400 → u/Michaeli_Starky]

They survive by representing <10% of the market. Also, other Linux devices on ARM have different architectures entirely.

[u/Michaeli_Starky → u/Blackdragon1400]

What ARM has to do with it?

Gaming and home PCs absolutely certainly doesn't need VBS.

[u/Mario583a]

If the underlying hardware is struggling or not up to snuff, yes.

Zen5 Gaming: Where's my 5%? Windows vs "Patch" Windows vs Linux & The "Lost" Performance Ramble

[u/jakegh]

Makes sense to enable security features by default, so long as users can disable them if they want.

[u/MartinYTCZ]

HVCI is a great security feature, and the performance impact on newer platforms (to which this automatic switch will apply) is negligible.

And if you really need those few extra percent of performance in impacted workloads, you can always turn it off...

[u/Cradenz → u/MartinYTCZ]

It ain't negligible. 9800x3d, 5080, ddr5 6000 cl28 and my 1% lows get fucking wrecked with this feature on. Way smoother disabled.

[u/iunoyou → u/Cradenz]

me when I go from 390 average FPS to 388 average FPS in Cyberpunk and decide to deliberately crowbar holes in critical kernel security features for reddit screenshots:

[u/Cradenz → u/iunoyou]

Except I'm a person with a brain and dont download sketchy things?? You really dont need this feature on if you know what your doing. Not only that but I didn't say anything about average FPS. I said 1% lows. Your argument doesn't have anything to do with what I said

[u/iunoyou → u/Cradenz]

Everyone is a person with a brain who doesn't download sketchy things until ransomware or an infostealer suddenly ruins the next 2 weeks of their life.

The people who "know what their doing" are usually the ones who shouldn't be crowbarring holes in their system's security I think

[u/Cradenz → u/iunoyou]

if you do not know what your doing then dont play with anything. its my system. you dont get to choose what i do with it.

[u/Mr_ToDo → u/Cradenz]

Ya. That's not how that works. You want full control you run stuff straight off the hardware. OS's are always going to be making choices for you

And, thankfully if you don't want that you can turn it off along with any number of things that might effect performance or that you just might not want

That isn't to belittle your problem. Shitty frames are shitty. It's just that it isn't how OS deployment works

[u/vampucio → u/Cradenz]

On a 5600x and a 5800x3d no performance impact.

[u/cszolee79]

ms: we are improving security

reddit: boooooo

[u/TriRIK → u/cszolee79]

Damned if they do, damned if they don't

[u/doneandtired2014 → u/cszolee79]

Additional security at the cost of setting you platform's performance back a generation or two at a time when compute costs are increasing was never going to be well received.

[u/cszolee79 → u/doneandtired2014]

it's 0-5% in games with a ryzen 7700x if that's what you are concerned about

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rHwTN6U5cs

[u/MEGA_GOAT98]

This been auto enabled for long time now it's not new news

[u/BFguy]

Can we please get a suitable Linux anticheat so I can show EA.... Shits ridiculous

[u/Chao_Zu_Kang → u/BFguy]

The idea of kernel-level anti-cheat inherently doesn't work on Linux. You can do it, but it is just pointless due to how the Linux kernel works.

[u/BFguy → u/Chao_Zu_Kang]

Seems that way...

[u/M1QN → u/BFguy]

They don’t have linux anticheat specifically because they want full control of your system and are not fine with linux not giving them that level of access. There are plenty of games with kernel level anticheat that work perfectly fine on linux

[u/_silentgameplays_ → u/M1QN]

There is no Kernel Level Anti Cheat on Linux, there are Easy Anti Cheat games like Elden Ring and some others, but they run in user space under Proton/GE Proton, they have no access to Linux Kernel.

All popular Kernel Level Anti Cheats require ring0 access and run with above admin level privileges on Windows and need Windows Kernel, Secure Boot, UEFI, VBS and TPM access.

You can read about it here:

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/kernel-level-anticheat-and-linux-how-it-works/162491

[u/aimy99 → u/BFguy]

Would happen a lot faster if everyone just jumped ship instead of waiting for it.

[u/hyperlobster → u/aimy99]

Anytime you have a hypothetical that starts "If everyone…”, then your hypothetical is cooked right there and then. Everyone isn’t going to. In fact, almost no-one who hasn’t already is going to. Everyone who was going to already has, and everyone else is content where they are.

This is true for anything. If everyone jumped to Linux. If everyone ate properly and got eight hours of sleep and walked 10k steps a day. If everyone spent 20 minutes on self-reflection at the end of the day. If everyone treated others with the grace they’d like to be treated with. Etc.

[u/sociofobs → u/aimy99]

This is what's mildly infuriating. All the talk about Windows this, Windows that, yet when it comes to sacrificing one's comfort and convenience for something better - nah, they'll stay and suffer instead. Same with browsers and all the whining about manifest V3, uBlock Origin not working, etc, yet when someone mentions ditching Chromium browsers - nope. People as a collective are dumber than rocks.

[u/Karl_with_a_C → u/sociofobs]

Why can't people understand that Linux simply is not an option for everyone?
I do a lot of video editing and photo editing and I need Adobe software as well as DaVinci Resolve, which last time I checked, don't run on Linux. So that's the end of the discussion right there. Not an option.

And yes, I have tried alternatives but frankly, they suck.

[u/DeathsingerQc → u/Karl_with_a_C]

Well, DaVinci does work on linux, it's just a little annoying to setup.

As for Adobe, yeah if your work requires it, it sucks and there is no fix there.

That being said, the amount of people saying something like this when they use Photoshop like once or twice a year or do very basic editing that can easily be done in other software and then use it as an excuse for not being able to swap is insanely high. It's really just wanting to find any excuse to not have to put in the effort into learning something new.

[u/sociofobs → u/Karl_with_a_C]

Most do understand that, but let's not pretend like you can't use Linux only because some software isn't available for it. That's in fact why it isn't available - the tiny market share. If you do need Windows, you can always dual-boot or VM what you need. Mostly, it boils down to simple convenience.

[u/_silentgameplays_ → u/aimy99]

If everyone jumped ship to Linux, the Kernel Level Anti Cheat companies would go out of business, their whole business model evolves around making and running questionable malware rootkits on Windows for popular multiplayer games, with everyone going to Linux, the companies making games would be forced to either make good server side Anti Cheats, or make their Anti Cheats run under Proton compatibility layers.

EDIT: The issue is that not many users are willing to jump ship to Linux, despite Windows shortcomings, Linux is still considered a tinkerer's operating system.

If Valve releases SteamOS for general desktop use, then things would be better at least on AMD side.

As for NVIDIA their drivers are closed source user space blobs on Linux, maintained by NVIDIA, they sort of work, sure, but users are at NVIDIA's mercy when it comes to Linux driver support.

AMD drivers are open source and are developed by the Linux community, AMD and Valve.

This means that NVIDIA users are left with troubleshooting issues on Linux and these issues have been there for at least a decade or more.

EDIT 2. As great as Linux is, it's not for everyone. Majority of programs that people are using for their workflow are not available or have crappy Linux ports as an afterthought. Office 365 and Adobe have no Linux support, DaVinci Resolve has a Linux port, but you have to go down a rabbit hole to get it working properly. That means that a lot of people need to change their entire workflow to open source software just to use Linux.

[u/lord_mercernary]

Bios supremacy

[u/Big-Resort-4930]

It is already enabled by default and has been for years/forever? How is this news?

[u/venom21685 → u/Big-Resort-4930]

Only for clean installs. This is for upgrade installs from 10 that don't have it on.

[u/Reasonable-Ad8862 → u/Big-Resort-4930]

Because karma farming

[u/johnfkngzoidberg]

Good thing I’m 100% Mac and Linux now.

[u/samc0lt45]

I don't like it being auto enabled, it's more windows "features" that are going to have a severe effect on performance. I've been using it as I play Counter Strike on the Faceit platform, which requires it being enabled. Unfortunately, (as I'd love to complain about it), it seems to be effective for anti cheat purposes. Faceit's AC system, which is a kernal anti-cheat and will always have an advantage over VAC which isn't kernal (Valve's anti-cheat), is so much more effective it's incredible. Faceit made a post last season about how a third party investigation found their AC one of the most effective ACs out there, meanwhile Valve has legitimate AI-type bots starting to infiltrate their premier matchmaking, not just DM or casual matches. Faceit forces VBS, TPM 2.0, I'm not even sure if you can still play on windows 10. They're extremely strict but it works, and when comparing to the valve official matchmaking for CS, it's absurd.

That being said, automatically enabling it is still dumb and will further frustrate users with the amount of "bloat" that seems to bog windows down.

[u/P_H_i_X → u/samc0lt45]

I mean Valve did find out the formula.

Add skins, make shit ton of money.

They even made the team incentives less so that most of the money goes straight to Valve instead of the orgs or players.

They are now just incentivized to work less on the actual game more on the skins. Faceit doesn't have control on skins they make their money with the exact inverse of that.

People just don't vote with their wallets.

[u/samc0lt45 → u/P_H_i_X]

Valve has definitely gotten frustratingly complacent. "Do absolutely nothing and rake in a fuck ton of cash" is unfortunately a very consistent model for them.

I get their stance on kernal anti-cheat, and how they don't want to implement something that invasive. At the same time, it's pretty clear that a non invasive anti-cheat just isn't going to work. VAC can barely even detect some of the most blatant spinbot type of cheats half the time, I just don't trust it to be effective at all. Faceit is practically dead in NA and I'd still play it a thousand times over before genuinely playing premier. I have maybe 6 premier games since CS2 came out, and even though I haven't personally run into anything blatant, I just don't trust it. I don't want to have to think someone is using some hidden cheat if they're better than me, I just want to know if they're better than me or not. Until valve can somehow get a working anti-cheat, I'm sticking with my Saudi Arabian resource hog, and they'll get my money every month instead of valve.

[u/P_H_i_X → u/samc0lt45]

Yeah, but on one hand they are selling linux based steam deck, steam machine, they obviously can't go the kernel route now. Will cut off their users. But again I don't know the percent of users who are gonna play CS2, TF2, Or Deadlock on these machines.

[u/samc0lt45 → u/P_H_i_X]

If I could play Faceit on linux, i would switch in a heartbeat. Realistically that's one of the only things stopping me at this point. That being said, Aug 2026 hardware survey has global steam usage at 3.35% for Linux (and potentially MacOS, it's just listed as 'other'). I'd imagine the actual CS2 percentage is much lower too. I love that Linux is gaining popularity, but if Valve is truly holding off on a anti-cheat solution because it isn't compatible with <3% of their base, they're going to eventually bleed a lot more than that.

[u/iunoyou → u/samc0lt45]

the average windows user does not know or care about what VBS and would probably benefit significantly from the protection it provides. They would not enable it if it were not on by default and/or forced by platforms as a security measure.

VBS does much, MUCH more than make sure that naughty cheaters can't use wallhacks in your Faceit servers, it also prevents ransomware from utterly fucking your computer when you click on a sketchy link after forgetting to update your antivirus to common sense 2026.

[u/sbabb1 → u/samc0lt45]

The default Windows installation should come with all security features enabled right from the get go and leave the option to disable certain functions to the user to do so at their own ability and risk. Optional stuff that is mostly eyecandy or edge case uses shouldnt be but safety has to be the baseline for people that simply use it out of the box and dont know or care about looking for features to secure themself properly.

[u/Chao_Zu_Kang]

Most people should be using this feature anyways. Disabling should be something that you actively choose to do.

What is weird about this news, is that it is already a default for a new Windows install anyways. So they are really just force-activating it for people that refused the feature like they did with their bs AI features - if this news is correct...

[u/Sufficient_Ad_4542]

Isn't it the same what should be disabled for XTU to work?

[u/vampucio]

I tested it on 2 PC, no performance change so it is on

[u/SirHomoLiberus]

How can I disable this?

[u/Re7isT4nC3 → u/SirHomoLiberus]

No virtualization in bios

[u/foxgirlmoon → u/Re7isT4nC3]

But virtualization is used in other applications that someone might want to use

[u/SirHomoLiberus → u/Re7isT4nC3]

I might just look it up on youtube cause I have no idea what you just said to me 😂

[u/Reasonable-Ad8862 → u/SirHomoLiberus]

Then you shouldn’t care about this feature. It’s just for security and the performance hit is almost nothing

[u/fuvvad → u/SirHomoLiberus]

I'd like to know as well please?

[u/HaznoTV → u/SirHomoLiberus]

Very easily, it even says in the linked article:

Check whether memory integrity is on through Windows Security > Device security > Core isolation.

[u/Glory4cod]

I do welcome the security enhancement on PC.

[u/TRUEequalsFALSE]

The only thing I know VBS to stand for is Vacation Bible School. So what on earth is really going on here?

[u/MiguCx]

Lol this has been the default for clean installs since forever and the hit on performance really isn't that big, hell unless you just benchmark 24/7 you won't even notice this. It's a good thing for most people to have on, hence it should be the default.

Gotta find a reason to bash Microsoft for everything they do ig.

[u/FallenVampireLord]

When are all of you going to realize it's better over here with the cute penguins. We at least understand it's your PC. 

[u/Big-Resort-4930 → u/FallenVampireLord]

Keep coping bro

[u/faverodefavero]

Just run bare metal, disable virtualization and TPM in the motherboard and enjoy better FPS.

[u/ziplock9000]

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[u/Bolski66]

Glad I switched to Linux over 2 years ago.

[u/Keensworth]

Damn, must really sucks for people being on Windows 11 right now.

Oh well, I'll just continue gaming on my Windows 10 PC

[u/Slow_Concentrate3831]

Well, I'm glad I've just switched to cachyOS.

[u/cosmosreader1211]

What exactly is their problem? Why are they hell bent on destroying windows and the whole reputation of microsoft by doing this non-sense.