The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Feature Focus
by Brett Howse on November 10, 2017 8:00 AM ESTSecurity Updates
Security is a never-ending battle, and each update Microsoft continues to add more features to help prevent malicious attacks. They have several new features that are worth going over for the Fall Creators Update.
Windows Defender Exploit Guard
The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit has been replaced with Windows Defender Exploit Guard features, and the EMET is no longer supported on Windows 10 v1709. Windows Defender Exploit Guard is a new set of Host Intrusion Prevention features which can be used to reduce the attack surface of Windows 10. It’s designed for an enterprise environment, and completely customizable through Group Policy.
It offers four general feature sets, which are exploit protection, attack surface reduction rules, network protection, and controlled folder access. For a full rundown on all of these new features, be sure to check out docs.microsoft.com which has all of the details and proper settings.
Windows Defender Application Guard
Application Guard is designed for Microsoft Edge to isolate untrusted sites, which are going to be a huge concern for any IT department. Internet Explorer did have some features to help in these scenarios, but Application Guard takes it to a whole new level by actually opening untrusted sites in an isolated Hyper-V enabled container, completely cut off from the host operating system. Any malicious code on the site would not be able to access the host OS, at least not easily, which offers a significant amount of protection over just blocking scripts and flash. The ability to do this through policy, and have only allowed trusted sites to run out of the container, is very powerful and is a strong reason to consider Edge for the enterprise.
Ransomware Protection
One specific feature to call out in Exploit Guard is the controlled folder access, which is a mitigation for ransomware. Ransomware has become a huge problem, and having malicious software encrypt your hard drive can put a damper on anyone’s day. Controlled folder access works by locking down folders to only authorized apps have access to the files. Luckily, controlled folder access is available to all in Windows 10, without needing any Group Policy to set it up.
You can enable controlled folder access right in the Security Center for Windows 10, and customize which folders you want it enabled for.
The idea behind controlled folders is pretty simple. Folders can’t get encrypted if the process doesn’t have access to them. Sometimes simple is the best.
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Hurr Durr - Sunday, November 12, 2017 - link
Uninstall the calculator.Lunaria - Monday, November 13, 2017 - link
The one that used to crash the explorer/windows back in the day? Fun times, couldn't believe it was even possible.mkozakewich - Sunday, November 12, 2017 - link
"Apple would be brining iTunes..."Mmm, musical pickles.
I've been waiting for F11 support in Edge ever since it came out! Overall, I've liked what they were doing with it, but I could never use it seriously since I always browse full-screen.
pjcamp - Monday, November 13, 2017 - link
I find exactly one irritating thing about Windows 10 -- the inability to pin a live tile to the desktop. Reminders that are hidden in the Start Menu don't help as I then need a reminder to look at the reminders. This has been a major irritant ever since Microsoft killed off gadgets. There are third party add ons but they tend to have a large system impact.acochrane - Monday, November 13, 2017 - link
If not for the need of Powerpoint I could do all my work in linux, where updates are still optional, vulnerabilities are easy to mitigate with iptables and source code is editable.I even get my minecrafting done in linux.
Powerpoint is Microsoft's last bastion of windows requirement.
Can I have Windows xp back?
navair2 - Monday, November 13, 2017 - link
Lol...I'll take Xp back, but I've gotten used to 64 bit addressing. Let's take Xp Professional then. Meanwhile, I'm still loving good old stable Win7,and if MS jacks with me, I'll simply slide over to Linux full time.dcaxax - Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - link
Win10 is still a horrible mess and every update brings more useless than useful features to add to the mess.Oh good, we have 3D creation tools for the 0.0001% of people who can use them, but we still have messed up settings, distributed between control panel and the new settings app, we still have 'modern' apps that are nowhere near as as flexible as their Win32 equivalents, they have a whole slew of new bugs that are very hard to resolve (you can no longer fix them with a registry hack) and the update broke of other stuff, like disappearing modern apps, which Microsoft is investigating.
Good thing they have the largest beta testing program, I shudder to think what we'd get otherwise...
And on top of this you have the ugliest user interface of any OS ever. Seriously, its worse than iOS, MacOS, Android, even linux looks better. So this update was supposed to bring 'fluent design'? Guess what I can't see it anywhere so that means it made 0% difference.
I miss my Macbook so much right now....
Beaver M. - Thursday, November 16, 2017 - link
Indeed. Its time for an alternative that even can make gamers happy. MS is finished, because they want to force this crap down our throats every 6 months and just mess everything up and ignore teh real problems and wishes.keta - Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - link
Has anyone tried using the new eye-tracking feature with a Tobii? I'm curious as to how the mouse function works in practice.enealDC - Friday, November 17, 2017 - link
I'm curious -- if you use the wireless display adapter, are you having trouble with it after upgrade? I cannot connect to my display adapter anymore