Windows 11 21H2 it has improved some security features compared to previous deployments of the operating system. One aspect that is supposed to have benefited was Virtualization Based Security (VBS), which uses hardware virtualization features to create and isolate a secure region of operating system memory.
However, despite the interesting addition that VBS is, it can lead to performance problems, so tools like Intel’s Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU), MSI’s Afterburner and the like have stopped working properly after the latest updateOr at least that’s what some are reporting. For example, XTU is able to show that the overclock is disabled on a system whose configuration should perfectly support it.
It seems that the origin of the problems detected with VBS, a feature that is also called Core Isolation elsewhere, is that it blocks access to things like Intel’s Overclocking Mailbox (MSR 150h), which are essential for the chips that support overclock, overvolting Y undervolting. Not even the BIOS reconfiguration corrects the situation, and although the problems have been detected in equipment from MSI, it is not ruled out that it can be reproduced in those from other OEMs.
VBS is not present in Windows 10, but in version 11 of the Microsoft operating system it was enabled by default at least initially. The Redmond giant has been able to make the decision to disable VBS and then reactivate it recentlywhich is why some are now complaining about problems when using tools like the ones mentioned in this post.
Microsoft has long taken the security of its users very seriously, but it seems that it doesn’t always hit the mark. As far as VBS is concerned, it was one of the main targets a year ago, when it was discovered that video games performed worse on Windows 11 than on the previous version of the operating system.
While waiting to confirm that VBS is the source of the problems that certain tools related to overclocking and performance measurement are having, the reality is that for years we have been facing a situation in which security, on many occasions, is won. at the cost of performance. Here we can highlight the many vulnerabilities discovered in processors, whose fix or mitigation leads in a high percentage of cases to loss of performance, and here the operating system used hardly matters.
