In the wake of recent devastating global ransomware outbreaks, Microsoft has released Insider Preview Build 16232 for Windows 10 operating system to protect against ransomware and other emerging threats that specifically targets its platform.
Microsoft is planning to introduce the security features in Windows 10 Creator Update (also known as RedStone 3), which is expected to release sometime between September and October 2017.
The anti-ransomware feature, dubbed Controlled Folder Access, is part of Windows Defender that blocks unauthorized applications from making any modifications to your important files located in certain “protected” folders.
Applications on a whitelist can only access Protected folders. So, you can add or remove the apps from the list. Certain applications will be whitelisted automatically, though the company doesn’t specify which applications.
Once turned on, “Controlled folder access” will watch over files stored inside Protected folders and any attempt to access or modify a protected file by non-whitelisted apps will be blocked by Windows Defender, preventing most ransomware to encrypt your important files.
So, whenever an application tries to make changes to Protected files but is blacklisted by the feature, you will get a notification about the attempt.
How to Enable Controlled Folder Access, Whitelist Apps and Add or Remove Protected Folders:
Here’s how to enable the Controlled folder access feature:
Go to Start menu and Open the Windows Defender Security Center
Go to the Virus & Threat Protection settings section
Set the switch to On
Here’s how to allow apps that you trust is being blocked by the Controlled folder access feature to access Protected folders:
Go to Start menu and Open the Windows Defender Security Center
Go to the Virus & Threat Protection settings section
Click ‘Allow an app through Controlled folder access’ in the Controlled folder access area
Click ‘Add an allowed app‘ and select the app you want to allow
Windows library folders like Documents, Pictures, Movies, and Desktop are designated as being compulsorily “protected” by default, which cannot be removed.
However, users can add or remove their personal folders to the list of protected folders. Here’s how to add folders to Protected folders list:
Go to Start menu and Open the Windows Defender Security Center
Go to the Virus & Threat Protection settings section
Click ‘Protected folders’ in the Controlled folder access area
Enter the full path of the folder you want to monitor
Users can also enter network shares and mapped drives, but environment variables and wildcards are not supported at this moment.
HOW TO INSTALL INSIDER PREVIEW BUILD 16232
The new build is available for download via Windows Update, so it’ll be automatically downloaded and installed on all computers running Windows 10 Insider Preview soon.
If you want to manually download and install the new build ASAP, you can do this using following simple steps:
- Open Settings app from Start Menu.
- Click on Update and security icon.
- Once you open Windows Update section, it’ll automatically start checking for new builds. Otherwise, you can click on “Check for updates” button.
- Click on “Download now” button to start downloading the new update build of Windows 10.
After downloading the build, your computer will automatically restart to install the new update.
The download size will be around 2 or 3 GB depending upon the computer architecture (32-bit or 64-bit) and system language.
PS: If you can’t find the new build on Windows Update, following tutorial will help you:
[Fix] New Insider Preview Builds of Windows 10 Not Showing on Windows Update
Source: The Hackernews, askvg, Microsoft
lakkireddymadhu 