Added ransomware protection in Defender you may not know about

Sicard

I didn't know about this until I started digging and found out there is an option in Windows Defender that is turned off by default (why?) and you have to phisicaly turn it on for additional protection:
https://www.pcgamer.com/windows-10-has-a-built-in-ransomware-block-you-just-need-to-enable-it/

Sicard

I've just discovered a flaw in the protection. When I altered a picture in Paint, an M$ app, it saw this as a threat and wouldn't allow me to save it. Now I know why it's turned off by default.

flaneurs_lobster

It's turned off by default because it will ask you to confirm that each application is allowed to access local storage (I assume just the first time). I guess this is OK if you are expecting it, might cause nervousness to unwary user.

Neil_Jones

Sicard said:

I've just discovered a flaw in the protection. When I altered a picture in Paint, an M$ app, it saw this as a threat and wouldn't allow me to save it. Now I know why it's turned off by default.

Like most things if you set it up properly it's absolutely fine.

You'll just need to add each app specifically in order to save to your protected folders.  It's not a "threat", it's just that Defender in its default state will block everything to the protected folders.  Once you add your key/often used apps to the list, it'll be fine.

Chino

Sicard said:

there is an option in Windows Defender that is turned off by default (why?)

Presumably because it requires users to manually add applications to the list of allowed apps otherwise apps fail when they attempt to access a controlled folder. When this happens, the user has to add the blocked app to the list of allowed apps. In other words, it makes sense for Windows' Ransomware protection to be an opt-in feature. It also relies on apps not leaving themselves in a conflicting state when an access fails.