In some examples, in response to a computing device powering on, a protected memory area inaccessible to an operating system is created, where the protected memory area includes information relating to instructions and an indication settable to a first value to indicate that the instructions are allowed to access a memory external of the protected memory area, and a second value to indicate that the instructions are not allowed to access the memory external of the protected memory area. In response to creating the protected memory area, the indication is modified from the first value to the second value to restrict the instructions when executed from accessing the memory external of the protected memory area. In response to modifying the indication, code in the computing device is launched, the launched code comprising the operating system or firmware.