A new security feature called Windows Defender Exploit Guard has been added to Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (the next major update of Microsoft’s popular OS) to stop ransomware attacks.
Windows Defender Exploit Guard is giving companies more control on limiting how code runs on their machines and provides tools to mitigate exploits at runtime. Windows Defender Exploit Guard will offer a set of powerful features for intrusion prevention.
Microsoft is trying to make it easier for users to secure valuable data from malicious apps and threats, such as ransomware.
“Controlled folder access monitors the changes that apps make to files in certain protected folders. If an app attempts to make a change to these files, and the app is blacklisted by the feature, you’ll get a notification about the attempt. You can complement the protected folders with additional locations, and add the apps that you want to allow access to those folders.”
“You can add additional folders to the list of protected folders, but you cannot alter the default list, which includes folders such as Documents, Pictures, Movies, and Desktop. Adding other folders to Controlled folder access can be handy, for example, if you don’t store files in the default Windows libraries or you’ve changed the location of the libraries away from the defaults.”