Enable PUP (Potentially Unwanted Programs) Detection in Windows Defender for Windows 10

While Windows Defender file detection rates have gone up from 0 out of 6 in AV-Test to a respectable 4.5/6, you can further enhance its security by enabling PUP detection. While this feature is currently available to Windows 10 Enterprise users out of the box, you can still enable it on your Windows 10 Home or Pro installation and it works just fine.

How to do it the manual way

If you prefer not to do this manually through regedit, then I have created a regfile that enables PUP Detection in Windows Defender. Simply double click on the file to import it into the Windows registry then reboot your computer.

Enable Windows Defender PUP Detection Reg File

Example of a PUP detection caught while trying to install Shark 007 Codecs. While Windows Defender doesn't go all the way of actually blocking the installer of the PUPs like NOD32 does, at least it detected the PUP so one would take extra care not to blindly hit the NEXT button and install everything but rather, carefully read what you are installing, after that I simply canceled out the bundled search garbage that it was trying to install and proceeded with the installation normally albeit without the PUPs:

 

I'm gonna give this a shot thanks

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk