Enable or Disable Microsoft Defender PUA Protection in Windows 10  

The one in Post #45 above from @Bree in the link https://www.amtso.org/feature-settin...-applications/

Ah, ok.

Rubi said:

Hi,

I have two questions:

1. if Defender is set to use Audit Mode (Audit Mode - will detect PUAs, but will not block them) what advantages does this have?

2. Have there been any tests or comparisons of Defender's PUA abilities/detection versus other well-known security applications?

Essentially, I am asking whether or not it is worth enabling this feature.

Thanks!

Hello Rubi,

1) Audi mode will basically just log the PUA events instead of blocking them. This can be good for testing purposes.

2) Can't think of any right now, but Googling may find a few.

It's certainly worth enabling PUA protection for extra security since no program is 100%.

Hello @Dandylion, and welcome to Ten Forums.

Real-time protection may catch and block a PUA (PUP), but it would be best to enable this to be sure and safe.

Dandylion said:

Any idea if the PUAs are detected and removed in standard Windows Defender scans?

Yes, with PUA detection enabled in Defender a normal scan finds PUAs too. If you don't enable PUA detection as per this tutorial they are not detected.

I have a couple of known PUAs tucked away in a password protected .zip file. I get them out occasionally for testing. It has to be a password protected .zip file because a normal scan would find them, even in a .zip file.


It's been a while since I last tested PUA detection, so I have just extracted them and ran a manual scan on the folder holding them. Still working in 1903....



...and after taking the recommended actions it now says:

Tutorial updated to add option 1 to change PUA settings in Windows Security.

Brink said:

Tutorial updated to add option 1 to change PUA settings in Windows Security.

I don't see that page running v1909 18363.720:
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