A method and apparatus for dependent segmentation and paging processing within a computer system include processing that begins by determining context of an operation supported by a native operating system. The context of an operation may correspond to performing an operation that is a native operating system operation or may be a legacy operating system operation. The processing then continues by setting within a corresponding segment descriptor a paging enable bit for a given segment that corresponds to the operation when the context of the operation corresponds to a legacy operating system. The setting of the paging enable bit is done in accordance with the processing of the native operating system. The processing then continues by processing the segment descriptor via segmentation processing in accordance with the legacy operating system to obtain a linear address. With the paging enable bitd, the linear address is processed to obtain a physical address.