Turned off Memory Integrity for a (harmless) app but an incompatible driver is preventing me from turning it back on

LeafyCharms · Nov 20, 2022

I really do mean it when I say that the app is harmless if anyone second guesses it, it was for Virtual Desktop. As of typing that sentence, Im confused as to why they wanted me to turn it off as a way to make sure it didnt stop the app from working but didnt give me that option on my older laptop.

Ive been poking through my Windows Security and wanted to turn my Memory Integrity back on but got the message saying I had incompatible drivers that prevented me from doing so.

It said it was btwusb.sys or the driver for my bluetooth usb devices. I dont know how to fix this at all, I live under a rock when it comes to specific tech stuff like this so any help is greatly appreciated.

Edit: Poking through similar threads for the same reason and I wanted to mention that I do need Bluetooth for Virtual Desktop to connect with my vr headset alongside the setup I have for it.

Bree · Nov 21, 2022

LeafyCharms said:
I wanted to mention that I do need Bluetooth for Virtual Desktop to connect with my vr headset alongside the setup I have for it.

Welcome to Eleven Forum

In that case you'll either have to live without Memory Integrity or reinstall btwusb.sys every time you need it. I have one machine where it's the display driver that's incompatible. For that machine I have to leave Memory Integrity turned off, as it was by default in Windows 10.

Memory Integrity is a subset of Core isolation, and the only part of it that requires compatible drivers. So you are still protected by Core Isolation, just not quite so much. This from the How-To-Geek explains what extra protection Memory Integrity provides.

What Are "Core Isolation" and "Memory Integrity" in Windows 10?

Windows 10's April 2018 Update brings "Core Isolation" and "Memory Integrity" security features to everyone.

www.howtogeek.com

bobkn · Nov 21, 2022

I believe that if you had Core Isolation enabled, then "btwusb.sys" could not have been active, if it conflicts.

Enable or Disable Core Isolation Memory Integrity in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off core isolation memory integrity in Windows 11. Core isolation is a security feature of Microsoft Windows that protects important core processes of Windows from malicious software by isolating them in memory. It does this by running those core...

www.elevenforum.com

Where is btwusb.sys located? If it's only in the Driver Store, then it is not in use.

Getting rid of files from the Driver Store can be difficult. I've done it using a script that changed the permissions so that files could be manually deleted, but I've mislaid the link.

Uninstall Driver in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to uninstall a driver for a device in Windows 10 and Windows 11. When a device is connected to your PC, Windows will usually automatically install drivers for it, or you may have to manually install the device's driver software. Sometimes it might be necessary...

www.elevenforum.com

spapakons · Nov 22, 2022

Have in mind that turning on Memory Integrity can slow down your computer. It is one of the things I recommend turning off if you have performance issues or you just want the maximum performance your computer can give. You need this protection only if you use virtualization applications. Otherwise you impair your system performance unnecessarily.

bobkn · Nov 22, 2022

bobkn said:
I believe that if you had Core Isolation enabled, then "btwusb.sys" could not have been active, if it conflicts.

Enable or Disable Core Isolation Memory Integrity in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off core isolation memory integrity in Windows 11. Core isolation is a security feature of Microsoft Windows that protects important core processes of Windows from malicious software by isolating them in memory. It does this by running those core...

www.elevenforum.com

Where is btwusb.sys located? If it's only in the Driver Store, then it is not in use.

Getting rid of files from the Driver Store can be difficult. I've done it using a script that changed the permissions so that files could be manually deleted, but I've mislaid the link.

Uninstall Driver in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to uninstall a driver for a device in Windows 10 and Windows 11. When a device is connected to your PC, Windows will usually automatically install drivers for it, or you may have to manually install the device's driver software. Sometimes it might be necessary...

www.elevenforum.com

Did a moderator insert the tutorial links? I didn't provide them.

I'm not complaining, but I've never seen anything like this previously.

Brink · Nov 22, 2022

bobkn said:
Did a moderator insert the tutorial links? I didn't provide them.

I'm not complaining, but I've never seen anything like this previously.

Yeah, I'll sometimes add related tutorial links to help with what is posted if spotted. :shawn:

bobkn · Nov 22, 2022

Brink said:
Yeah, I'll sometimes add related tutorial links to help with what is posted if spotted.

You take the risk of making me look more knowledgeable than I am.

NormanF · Dec 11, 2022

Bree said:
Welcome to Eleven Forum

In that case you'll either have to live without Memory Integrity or reinstall btwusb.sys every time you need it. I have one machine where it's the display driver that's incompatible. For that machine I have to leave Memory Integrity turned off, as it was by default in Windows 10.

Memory Integrity is a subset of Core isolation, and the only part of it that requires compatible drivers. So you are still protected by Core Isolation, just not quite so much. This from the How-To-Geek explains what extra protection Memory Integrity provides.

What Are "Core Isolation" and "Memory Integrity" in Windows 10?

Windows 10's April 2018 Update brings "Core Isolation" and "Memory Integrity" security features to everyone.

www.howtogeek.com

Microsoft couldn't grandfather in Intel graphics drivers! Idiots since they expect us to boot to a black screen to enable a feature that can't be turned on without removing a critical driver. Hilarious! A Catch-22 that's broken by design.

NormanF · Dec 11, 2022

bobkn said:
I believe that if you had Core Isolation enabled, then "btwusb.sys" could not have been active, if it conflicts.

Enable or Disable Core Isolation Memory Integrity in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off core isolation memory integrity in Windows 11. Core isolation is a security feature of Microsoft Windows that protects important core processes of Windows from malicious software by isolating them in memory. It does this by running those core...

www.elevenforum.com

Where is btwusb.sys located? If it's only in the Driver Store, then it is not in use.

Getting rid of files from the Driver Store can be difficult. I've done it using a script that changed the permissions so that files could be manually deleted, but I've mislaid the link.

Uninstall Driver in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to uninstall a driver for a device in Windows 10 and Windows 11. When a device is connected to your PC, Windows will usually automatically install drivers for it, or you may have to manually install the device's driver software. Sometimes it might be necessary...

www.elevenforum.com

But if that's a critical driver you do NOT want to remove it! Even Microsoft recommends against it. There are no so called incompatible drivers, its the feature that's broken. If it can't run with your graphics driver, what good is it?

bobkn · Dec 11, 2022

NormanF said:
But if that's a critical driver you do NOT want to remove it! Even Microsoft recommends against it. There are no so called incompatible drivers, its the feature that's broken. If it can't run with your graphics driver, what good is it?

Not all drivers in the Drivers Store are critical. I've deleted ones that were left over from applications that have been uninstalled. Not risk-free, but better for me than doing a clean Windows installation to get rid of them.

Why do you mention graphics drivers? Nothing to do with the OP's issue, as far as I can tell.

NormanF · Dec 11, 2022

bobkn said:
Not all drivers in the Drivers Store are critical. I've deleted ones that were left over from applications that have been uninstalled. Not risk-free, but better for me than doing a clean Windows installation to get rid of them.

Why do you mention graphics drivers? Nothing to do with the OP's issue, as far as I can tell.

The Intel Graphics driver is identified by Windows as being incompatible. I have the latest driver and this shouldn't be an issue at all regardless of whether its old or its been updated. It makes no sense whatsoever.

bobkn · Dec 12, 2022

NormanF said:
The Intel Graphics driver is identified by Windows as being incompatible. I have the latest driver and this shouldn't be an issue at all regardless of whether its old or its been updated. It makes no sense whatsoever.

Sorry, I missed that.

It's also irrelevant to the OP.

NormanF · Dec 12, 2022

I did some Googling and it appears the reason its turned off is your hardware can’t support it even if it supports Hyper V, Microsoft Defender Application Guard and virtual machine and such.

It isn’t a matter of updated software; there’s nothing you can do about the hardware and I’m not about to delete a driver just because Windows decided it can’t work with Memory Integrity.

A shame Microsoft doesn’t tell its users that up front.

spapakons · Dec 12, 2022

First of all Memory Integrity is useless unless you are using virtual machines. Second it slows down the whole system in most computers, so I would keep it off at all times to greatly improve performance. As for the graphics drivers there is no harm uninstalling it. If Windows cannot find a suitable driver they will install Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. This has no hardware acceleration at all and makes the system slower. You can then try downloading and installing the Intel drivers to restore full system performance. For old Intel graphics cards (such as Intel Mobile 4 family aka GMA 4500 in my test laptop) there are no official Intel drivers for Windows 8 or higher. The drivers for Windows 7 are locked not to install on newer Windows versions. So you are stuck with Microsoft Update drivers only. There are some third party modified Intel drivers for Windows 7 that can be installed in Windows 10/11 for 945G and Mobile 4 family graphics.

Bree · Dec 12, 2022

NormanF said:
The Intel Graphics driver is identified by Windows as being incompatible. I have the latest driver and this shouldn't be an issue at all regardless of whether its old or its been updated. It makes no sense whatsoever.

If this is the i5-4300U in your specs then it is no longer being actively supported by Intel. It was released in 2013 and the latest driver from Intel was from 2015, years before Memory Integrity became part of Windows. I have the same issue on one machine with an i7-4600U from the same family of processors.

Intel release notes.pdf said:
DRIVER VERSION: 15.40.7.64.4279 & 15.40.7.32.4279
DATE: September 1, 2015

Intel® Graphics Driver for Windows® 10 [15.40][4th Gen]

spapakons · Dec 12, 2022

Disable Memory Integrity and the install latest Intel graphics drivers. In such old system having Memory Integrity enabled most probably will make it crawl. I don't think you want that. Besides the extra security is valid only if you use virtualization, otherwise it does nothing more than to slow down your computer.

bobkn · Dec 12, 2022

NormanF said:
I did some Googling and it appears the reason its turned off is your hardware can’t support it even if it supports Hyper V, Microsoft Defender Application Guard and virtual machine and such.

It isn’t a matter of updated software; there’s nothing you can do about the hardware and I’m not about to delete a driver just because Windows decided it can’t work with Memory Integrity.

A shame Microsoft doesn’t tell its users that up front.

If the PC in question is the laptop in "my computer", I suppose that MS found no reason to warn you about installing 11 on a machine with a Gen4 CPU. (Oldest supported are Gen8, except for a few Gen7 "extreme" CPUs.)

If your laptop lacks a TPM (in firmware or with a module), it won't qualify for even basic device security.

spapakons · Dec 12, 2022

And as already said, unless you use virtualization Memory Integrity protects nothing and slows down your system. Keep it disabled. In Windows 10 it is disabled by default.

Turned off Memory Integrity for a (harmless) app but an incompatible driver is preventing me from turning it back on

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