22 PCWorld APRIL 2020NEWS MICROSOFT EDGE TO BLOCK UNWANTED APPS
Defender SmartScreen
to detect and warn
against what Microsoft
calls PUAs, or Potentially
Unwanted Apps.
(Microsoft has listed
what it considers to be
common PUAs here—
go.pcworld.com/
puas.)
If turned on, Edge
will block these apps by
default, though you’ll
have the option to override Microsoft’s decision
and allow the app to download and install.
The new option takes Windows’ own
built-in protection in a different direction. To
date, Microsoft’s efforts have been focused
primarily on malware. The company’s answer
to that has been the Microsoft Store, which
has a list of curated apps that Microsoft has
already approved. But far more applications
can be downloaded from third-party app
stores or from the web itself, where users
must depend on the trustworthiness of the
app’s author.
Microsoft makes clear, moreover, that
PUAs are not malware, per se. Adware or
cryptominers don’t necessarily harm your PC;
they simply slow it down. Some anti-malwareIf Edge detects a PUA, it will pop up this notification. You can click the ellipsis menu to whitelist it.applications already identify applications like
cryptominers and block them. Microsoft’s
code now attempts to sniff out piggybacked
applications that come bundled with apps
that are otherwise harmless.
Edge’s protections against PUAs are off by
default, though they can be turned on by
going to Edge’s Settings menu, then to
Privacy and Services > Services > Block
potentially unwanted apps. If a PUA is
detected, you’ll see a notification, like the
images shown in this article. You’ll then have
the option to reject the app entirely, or let
Microsoft know that it’s okay to download.
Microsoft will take this feedback and
incorporate it, Microsoft said in a blog post
(go.pcworld.com/uwnt).Microsoft’s new PUA protections live in the Settings menu.