On Windows 11/10, Core Isolation turned itself off.

If you have enabled Core Isolation and Memory Integrity on your Windows 11 or Windows 10 computer, but for unknown reasons, this inbuilt device security feature turns off on its own, this post is intended to help you with the most effective solutions to the problem.

What happened to my Core isolation?

If Core Isolation Memory Integrity is disabled and you are unable to enable it, it is likely that you have an incompatible driver installed on your system. You should see a list of any incompatible drivers listed or shown on that Windows Device Security page. The action you must take in this case is to remove the identified driver(s), as described in Solution 3] in this post.

Core Isolation was turned off on its own.

If the native device security feature in Windows 11/10, Core Isolation, is turned off by itself, potentially leaving your computer vulnerable to malicious attacks such as ransomware, the fixes presented below can help you resolve the issue and ensure your PC remains protected!

1. Repair or reinstall Windows Security or Defender
2. SFC should be run.
3. Look for and uninstall incompatible drivers.
4. Windows 11/10 Reset/Repair/Reinstall

Let’s have a look at how these mentioned fixes apply!

Repair or reinstall Windows Security or Defender

This should be your first step in troubleshooting the Core Isolation turned off by itself issue on your Windows 11/10 device if your device meets the requirements. You can enable Virtualization-based Security (VBS) through the Settings app or the Registry Editor. So, if you enabled VBS through the Settings app but the problem persists, you can try enabling the feature through the Registry Editor and see if the setting sticks, as it is likely that a glitch is turning off the feature. If neither the registry method nor reinstalling Defender helped, you can repair or reset Windows Security or reinstall Defender to restore Windows Security settings to default values.

SFC should be run

This device security feature is enabled by default. If you haven’t disabled the Virtualization Based Security (VBS) feature on your device and the problem persists, it could be due to system file corruption. In this case, you can start troubleshooting by running SFC, which will restore or repair any corrupted system files. This utility replaces bad system files with healthy system files or cached copies located in a compressed folder at%WinDir%System32dllcache. If this repository is corrupted, you will need to run the DISM command below and then rerun the SFC scan.

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Look for and uninstall incompatible drivers

If this feature is disabled in Windows Security, the defaulting or incompatible driver that won’t load is displayed. In this case, you can delete or uninstall these incompatible drivers from your Windows 11/10 computer by selecting one of the options listed below.

• PnPutil is a command. It is important to note that running this command will remove the device driver, and the device will not work the next time you use it. Reinstalling the driver may be beneficial.
• Autoruns. Start the utility as administrator, then navigate to the Driver tab and locate and delete the driver.
• Explorer for Driver Stores.

Windows 11/10 Reset/Repair/Reinstall

If your system files are in good condition and there are no incompatible drivers on your system, or you have removed them as described in Solution [3] above, but the problem persists, you are most likely dealing with severe system corruption that cannot be resolved through less or non-invasive troubleshooting — in this case, and as a last resort, you can first use the Reset this PC feature to see if that helps. If this is not the case, perform an in-place upgrade repair. If the problem persists, you will need to clean install Windows on your device — we recommend creating a new installation media using the most recent Windows ISO image file.

We hope you found this article useful!

Did Windows 11 remove Core isolation?

The Core isolation features, including memory integrity, are enabled by default with the Windows 11 2022 Update. If you’re still on version 21H2 or the feature isn’t working, you may need to manually enable the device security feature. For users wondering if this feature slows down the PC, Microsoft stated that the Virtual Machine Platform and Memory Integrity (part of Core isolation) are the two features that may slow down games – the Memory Integrity feature is in charge of controlling driver installation.

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