Defender Application Guard is available for Chromium Edge on the Canary branch of the preview. This is the least stable release channel so we wouldn’t advise using this as your go-to browser. The added security protection should come to the more stable Dev and Beta channels over the next couple of months. It is worth noting that the older UWP version of Microsoft Edge already had Windows Defender Application Guard, so this is Microsoft bringing the newer Chromium-based browser up to speed. However, it’s a new security feature on the Edge preview that is really interesting. Microsoft is testing a Potentially Unwanted Application (PUA) protection security feature, as reported by TechDows. The company says this tool detects and blocks app downloads that could contain security compromises.
PUA Protection
PUA protection is also able to block apps that have a bad reputation, perhaps a history of malware exploits. Microsoft does not classify PUAs as classic malware or virus content, but categorizes them as the following:
Various types of software bundling Ad injection into web browsers Driver and registry optimizers that detect issues, request payment to fix the errors, but remain on the endpoint and make no changes or optimizations (also known as “rogue antivirus” programs)
PUA protection in Chromium Edge is currently only available via a flag. We guess that will change through ongoing development, but in the meantime, you can access the tool by:
Heading to the Microsoft Edge Canary browser Open the flags menu (type Edge://flags in the address bar) Search “Microsoft Defender SmartScreen PUA support” in the flags menu Click the drop down menu and switch the flag to “Enabled” Relaunch Microsoft Edge.
