Everything is blocked by default

Once enabled, the Controlled Folder Access would block all apps that haven’t been manually whitelisted by the user from accessing any protected folders. In theory, this should stop any attempts from Ransomware viruses that try to encrypt the user’s data as long as the folder where the files reside has been added to the list of folders protected by the new feature.

As you probably already know, Ransomware is a huge issue for both regular users and the admins of big computer networks as those viruses can easily lock-up all personal files on the infected machine and later blackmail the computer’s user into making a ransom payment to the hacker who is behind the attack. Hopefully, the utility added by Microsoft will help with the protection of any important data documents that users value. In fact, the idea of secured, access-restricted folders isn’t new as a number of antivirus programs offer such a feature. However, many of them require the user to buy the premium version of the antivirus in order to be able to use the said utility. However, now that Controlled Folder Access has been added to Windows 10, even customers that do not have this kind of feature available on their antivirus, would be able to use it directly from their OS as a built-in option.

How to enable it

Here is a brief explanation of how you can access, enable and customize the Controlled Folder Access feature on your Windows 10:

1. The first thing you’d need to do is open your Start Menu and type Windows Defender Security Center. Open the first result that shows up.
2. Once the new window opens, click on the Virus and threat protection option from the left panel and then select Virus and threat protection settings from the right.
3. On the newly-opened page, scroll down until you reach the Controlled folder access settings. In order to enable the feature, simply click on the Off button so that it changes to On.
4. Next, you will need to select which folders you wish to protect. To do that, click on the Protected folders option and add any folders that you want to have protected. We advise you to add all folders that contain files which are important or valuable to you.
5. If you want to whitelist any apps (i.e. allow them to have access to the protected folder), select Allow an app through Controlled folder access from the Controlled folder access options and add any apps that will be deemed trusted and would be allowed to access, create, delete and modify files that are inside the protected folders.
6. *Extra Step* – There is also another way to quickly enable/disable Controlled folder access feature – simply copy-paste the following line Set-MpPreference -EnableControlledFolderAccess Enabled in the PowerShell command line and hit Enter. This will enable the feature, to disable it, simply change the argument from Enabled to Disabled. If you do not know how to access the PowerShell command line, simply type powershell in your Start Menu search bar and open the first result that gets displayed.

You still need to be careful!

Even though this feature is an improvement towards having better protection for your files against Ransomware or other malicious apps, you must still remember that the best defense for your computer and your data is the one that you provide them with through your actions and your common sense. Always remember to stay safe online and to avoid any potential sources of malware such as illegal and shady websites or spam messages and sketchy web ads and offers. After all, it is much better to simply avoid dangerous programs than to have the security features of your machine put to the test as you can hardly ever know for sure which is going to come on top – the malware or the security of your system.

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Game devs could use it to fight cheating

The idea behind TruePlay is to provide game developers with a set of tools that would allow them to create their products with a built-in cheat protection that would both stop most forms of game hacking/cheating and also report any attempts at game manipulation. The games that use TruePlay would run in a environment that is protected from most types of attacks that cheats use (for example – aimbots, maphacks, wallhacks, etc.).

In addition, TruePlay would also monitor any cheating and game manipulation attempts, successful or not, and report them to the game’s dev.

Another thing that makes this new feature quite useful is that it works as an API (Application Programming Interface). This makes it much easier to integrate TruePlay inside a game which is why researchers predict that it has potential to become quite popular and widely-used.

Feature disabled by default due to privacy concerns

One thing to note about TruePlay is that it won’t be enabled by default. The main reason for this is the feature’s ability to collect data from the user’s PC with regards to the games that are played on it that use True Play. If enabled by default, many would consider it a privacy invasion which is why its creators have decided to make it an opt-in feature rather than an opt-out one.

As we mentioned above, the info that would get gathered would show the game’s developer if any cheat-like manipulations were attempted on their game during playtime by the user. However, the collected data would be anonymous so that the user’s privacy would remain secured. Still, though, if one wants to have the feature enabled, they would need to manually turn it on from Windows 10 settings.

No one would willingly enable it?

The fact that the feature is disabled by default begs the question: Wouldn’t that defeat the whole purpose of TruePlay? Well, it turns out it won’t. If more game devs implement this new feature, gamers will need to enable it on their PC in order to play the game online. Otherwise, they won’t be able to play against other players online in multiplayer matches. Therefore, if you want to play an online game protected by TruePlay, you will need to manually go to your Win 10 settings and enable the new Microsoft feature so as to be allowed into the game.

As we already mentioned, it is predicted that TruePlay will gain popularity as it offers developers to take an already completed tool and simply add it to their product without the need to go through the long and oftentimes arduous process of writing their own code for a cheat-protection feature. The API of TruePlay further eases-up the process and makes it really convenient to implement.

Hopefully, with this new addition to Win 10, online gaming on this platform would become more fair and with less instances of hacking and cheating, especially if more game developers embrace it and add it to their software.

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It is widely-known that many software developers tend to collect data from their users. In the rapidly evolving world of technology, information is an expensive currency and everybody tries to get their hands on as much data as possible. Logically, this has lead to the introduction of a variety of methods for gathering personalized information from the customers. Such data can be used in a number of ways. One of the most common uses of personalized data such as browsing habits, interests, preferences, etc. has to do with the online marketing industry. Targeted advertising is a highly profitable business and the best way to ensure success is to have relevant data on as a big part of the virtual population as possible. Of course, there are other purposes of information gathered through telemetry such as relevant user feedback and opportunities for improvement.

Nowadays, telemetry procedures are carried out by a lot of websites, web services, mobile apps, PC programs and even Operating Systems. It is often disputed whether or not and to what extent telemetry is legal and acceptable. Currently, as long as the user is explicitly informed about what personal data is being collected, the telemetry is process should be considered in line with the law. Regardless, a lot of times it is difficult to put an actual, clear cut line between legal and illegal collection of user data leading to a lot of gray areas in this area of the legal virtual reality.

Win 10 telemetry and the Dutch government

One recent example of potential legal issues with regards to telemetry comes from the Netherlands’ authorities and their concern with the way Windows 10 and its browser – Microsoft Edge, obtain personal details from their users. According to the Dutch Data Protection authority (DPA), the customers who use Win 10 are not clearly and explicitly informed about what information the OS and the browser collect from them or how the said data is to be used afterwards. Apparently, this violates the national laws of the Netherlands and could lead to a legal dispute between the government of the country and Microsoft.

Currently, Microsoft is trying to resolve the issues that the DPA has pointed out so as to make their latest OS and its browser compliant with the national laws of the Netherlands. As stated by Marisa Rogers, Windows’ privacy officer, a number of improvements have been made towards making Windows 10 more privacy-oriented throughout the past years after the Operating System was launched and more are in the pipeline.

Windows 10 telemetry

Actually, the fact that Win 10 and Microsoft Edge gather personal data isn’t anything new. However, it must be noted out that the amount of data that gets collected by this OS is rather overwhelming. As pointed out by the DPA, Windows 10 monitors most of what you do on your PC, creating a detailed profile of your habits as a user. This includes the which Windows apps you use and how you use them as well as what you do online (if you are using Edge). Some aspects of Window’s telemetry can be controlled and even disabled by the user through the OS’s settings yet if the default settings are used, Microsoft would be collecting personalized data on their users.

The problem, as stated by the DPA, is that all of this is enabled by default and that the customer isn’t properly informed regarding what data is getting collected, how it is going to be used and how the telemetry feature can be disabled. However, even though Microsoft has agreed to cooperate, there are points from the DPA investigation and the final results that Microsoft disagrees with. A detailed of what aspects of the investigation are considered inaccurate can be found here, on this link.

Not the first time Microsoft has issues with a country’s government

This is certainly not the first instances of a country’s government having issues with the company’s politics, especially regarding Windows 10. As a matter of fact, there are quite a few examples where the national law of a country got violated by the way Windows 10 functions. Similar cooperations between Microsoft and the Swiss or the French governments were required so that Win 10 does not violate their national laws of virtual privacy. Also, a couple of months ago the German authorities finally won a legal struggle against Microsoft in relation to Windows 10 upgrades being installed without the user’s consent. You can find an article about that here.

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Introduction

Edge is considered to be a lightweight browser which focuses on performance and simplicity. Unlike the older IE versions, here Microsoft have tried (and managed) to optimize their product, making it a reliable and fast. This is not to say that there are no issues with Edge but it is certainly something else. It comes packed with Win 10 and is set as the default browser when Windows 10 is installed. Currently (as one might expect), Edge is still nowhere near as popular as Chrome or Firefox, but it has some good qualities which results in a lot of people keeping it as their default browser program which leads to the increase of its popularity.

Interface

The interface of Edge is simple and clean, without anything unwanted or unnecessary. Similarly to IE 11, the address and search bars have been combined which isn’t a bad idea as it reduces the screen space that is taken from the page. However, the search engine integrated in the search/address bar is set to Bing by default and changing it to Google requires several steps to complete – some users might find this annoying. The starting and new tab pages of Edge is set by default to a page that combines a search bar and a row of tiles with popular websites on the top and a newsfeed/weather row down below which can be customized. In our opinion, Opera’s Speed Dial new tab page is more useful as it basically serves as a bookmarks page where you can see tiles from the sites you have selected to appear in there. Still, Edge’s variant isn’t bad either and some might even find it better. Otherwise, the interface of this browser is easy to navigate and there is hardly anything obstructive or irritating. Some might dislike it due to its simplicity but we believe that having a clean interface is not a bad thing.

Performance

A big issue that older Microsoft browsers had was their low speed and weak performance. This is now in the past with Edge’s satisfying speed and good performance. It doesn’t consume much system resources and loads pages with relative ease. It is currently one of the fastest browsers out there and this is likely Edge’s best trait. Therefore, if you want a fast browser that doesn’t require too much resource usage for Window 10, Edge might be enough to satisfy your needs so that you don’t have to download a new browsing program.

Cortana

A neat feature that comes with Edge is the integration with Cortana – Windows 10’s virtual assistant. There are a number of functions related to Cortana when you are using Edge such as helping with the search of certain information within webpages or directly providing answers for certain queries that the user issues. For example, the feature called Cortana Assist highlights relevant information such as phone numbers, addresses, etc. within a page so that it saves the user some time.

Other features

There are a couple of things that Edge offers as additional utility. There is a Reading List feature through which one can save webpages for later use, however, this function cannot be sued offline. There is a form of reading mode that removes obstructive content from a page making it easier for the user to focus on the text. Sharing on social media with Edge is made easier as well so that the user wouldn’t need to access additional applications in order to post something on a social media platform. Another good thing about Edge is it’s Integrated Adobe Flash as well as PDF support which makes this browser an effective reader program as well.

However, one must bear in mind that Edge’s extra features and also, it’s potential plug-ins and extensions library aren’t as rich as those of other competing browsers. Part of this can be contributed to the fact that Edge is a relatively new browser and is still on its way towards improvement but if you are looking for something highly versatile with a lot of options to choose from, you might prefer some of the established top browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc.). One other thing that we didn’t like about Edge is the lack of a full-screen mode when viewing a webpage – something that most modern browsers have.

Conclusion

Microsoft Edge is certainly not a bad browser. It has several issues and lacks the versatility of the current top browsers but it is slowly improving and is certainly a competitive product that has a lot to offer. It’s lightweight and fast performance are nice additions which everyone would certainly enjoy. Therefore, if you are a Windows 10 users (Edge is available only for Win 10) and you don’t care too much about add-ons, and extra features and are simply looking for a fast and reliable browser, Edge might be the program for you.

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