Forum Discussion
My first BSOD in 20 years on Windows 11 computer
I know now what caused it.
The BFE (Base Filtering Engine) was infected with a malware. That caused my firewall to stop functioning and invited more malware into my system, and that eventually led to it.
It was kind of my fault for I was online for a few minutes without any anti-virus protection to update my drivers.
If you ever face the same problem (BFE unable to activate and kind of being grayed out), there is a freeware tool called PSTools that will reactivate it.
2 Replies
Indeed, malware can disable critical Windows services like BFE, leading to firewall failures and increased vulnerability. Using tools like PsTools from Sysinternals can sometimes help manually re-enable or repair these services.
Always ensure your system is thoroughly scanned with reputable antivirus or anti-malware tools before making manual changes.
