Yes, but its not highly recommended...
I entirely agree with you on this one CrucialHoax, however, there is always an element available to the person sitting in front of their System....it's called choice.
No matter how many warnings are included in articles
not to attempt certain tweaks, there are always those who are drawn to try and beat the system. DEP and UAC are two classic protection areas where this is the case.
Inevitably, the person who chooses to disable either of the two protection elements above, eventually turns up in the Security Forum with their Computer full of Viruses and Malware and displaying non-stop BSODs, begging for immediate assistance to get their system, back up and running.
The underlying warning in Vista Help and Support on this question, is that it [DEP -
Off] should only be used for individual instances of incompatible programs, and even then the User should actively seek a compatible alternative program as quickly as possible, and restore DEP function.