If you’ve updated your Windows 10 install to the Fall Creators Update, you have a new feature that protects you from ransomware. It’s called controlled folder access. What it does is it prevents suspicious applications from changing the contents of selected protected folders. So if you extrapolate that to a ransomware attack, it should stop ransomware from encrypting your files and holding them hostage.
Here’s how you turn it on:
- Go to the Windows Defender Security Center App
- Open the virus & threat protection screen within Defender
- Click on Virus & threat protection settings
- Turn on the controlled folder access option
The document that I linked to above also has a way to turn this on in a corporate environment with dozens or perhaps hundreds of computers. There’s no performance penalty by turning this on and you will be better off by doing so. Thus I would recommend that you turn it on today.
UPDATE: In further testing I found that Parallels Desktop does not seem to like this feature if you have turned on sharing of your Mac’s home folders with a Windows 10 virtual machine. It also stops updates to Parallels Tools from taking place. Thus Parallels Desktop users should turn this feature off until Parallels comes out with a fix for this.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
This entry was posted on October 24, 2017 at 8:38 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
#PSA: Windows 10 Users Now Have A Means To Protect Themselves From Ransomware
If you’ve updated your Windows 10 install to the Fall Creators Update, you have a new feature that protects you from ransomware. It’s called controlled folder access. What it does is it prevents suspicious applications from changing the contents of selected protected folders. So if you extrapolate that to a ransomware attack, it should stop ransomware from encrypting your files and holding them hostage.
Here’s how you turn it on:
The document that I linked to above also has a way to turn this on in a corporate environment with dozens or perhaps hundreds of computers. There’s no performance penalty by turning this on and you will be better off by doing so. Thus I would recommend that you turn it on today.
UPDATE: In further testing I found that Parallels Desktop does not seem to like this feature if you have turned on sharing of your Mac’s home folders with a Windows 10 virtual machine. It also stops updates to Parallels Tools from taking place. Thus Parallels Desktop users should turn this feature off until Parallels comes out with a fix for this.
Share this:
Like this:
Related
This entry was posted on October 24, 2017 at 8:38 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.