New Microsoft Edge gets Potentially Unwanted Application (PUA) protection

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The latest version of Microsoft's upcoming Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser includes options to enable protection against Potentially Unwanted Applications (PUAs).

The feature blocks downloads of software programs that Microsoft Defender SmartScreen identified as potentially problematic.

Microsoft introduced a new protective feature in Windows Defender in August 2018 that would detect and block potentially unwanted programs on the system the security feature was enabled on.

PUAs include various types of software bundling, programs that inject advertisement into the browser or system, and "optimizer" programs that detect (mostly) superfluous issues on the system in an attempt to sell a premium version of the program.

The option in the new Microsoft Edge web browser works similarly. Microsoft added it as an experimental flag to the most recent Chrome Canary version; it is unclear at this point if the option will become available in the Settings directly in the first Stable version of Microsoft Edge and whether it will be enabled.

Here is what you need to do right now to enable it:

1. Make sure you run the latest Microsoft Edge Canary version
2. Load edge://flags in the web browser's address bar.
3. Search for SmartScreen.
4. Locate the "Microsoft Defender SmartScreen PUA support" flag on the page.
5. Set it to enabled.
6. Restart the web browser.
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