Spurious "Protected Folders Feature Enabled" warning?

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silverdesk
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jul 05, 2017 12:00 am

Spurious "Protected Folders Feature Enabled" warning?

Post by silverdesk »

I am on Windows 10 x64 1803. Just updated to IFW 3.21 (64-bit) and got a warning that "Windows Defender Protected Folders feature is enabled and Image for Windows is not in the Allowed Apps list. This will cause Windows Defender to issue an misleading message that it has 'blocked unauthorized changes to memory' simply upon the program opening the hard drive."

As far as I can tell, Protected Folders are not on. I have done 2 things to verify that Protected Folders are not on: (1.) I went to Local Group Policy Editor > Computer configuration > Administrative templates > Windows components > Windows Defender Antivirus > Windows Defender Exploit Guard > Controlled folder access and it shows under "State" "Not Configured"

(2.) In system settings [Winkey+I] searched for Protected Folders, jumps me into Windows Defender Security Center with a "Page Not Available" warning: "Your IT administrator has limited access to some areas of this app, and the item you tried to access is not available. Contact IT helpdesk for more information." This is odd as I am a home user and am the administrator of the PC. Nevertheless, I proceed: I press OK, go to Virus & Threat Protection > Ransomware protection and it says in yellow type "Controlled folder access requires turning on Real-time protection." and the little button under Controlled folder access is grayed out and set to Off.

So are Protected Folders on? Does Image for Windows have a special way of detecting this? How do I disable protected folders or tell if it is really on, in light of the info above?

Thanks in advance for anyone's help.
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: Spurious "Protected Folders Feature Enabled" warning?

Post by TeraByte Support »

it's only a warning, install and see if you get those messages, it's
possible it's set to be on, but not active.


"silverdesk" wrote in message news:15586@public.image...

I am on Windows 10 x64 1803. Just updated to IFW 3.21 (64-bit) and got a
warning that "Windows Defender Protected Folders feature is enabled and
Image for Windows is not in the Allowed Apps list. This will cause Windows
Defender to issue an misleading message that it has 'blocked unauthorized
changes to memory' simply upon the program opening the hard drive."

As far as I can tell, Protected Folders are not on. I have done 2 things
to verify that Protected Folders are not on: (1.) I went to Local Group
Policy Editor > Computer configuration > Administrative templates > Windows
components > Windows Defender Antivirus > Windows Defender Exploit Guard >
Controlled folder access and it shows under "State" "Not Configured"

(2.) In system settings [Winkey+I] searched for Protected Folders, jumps me
into Windows Defender Security Center with a "Page Not Available" warning:
"Your IT administrator has limited access to some areas of this app, and the
item you tried to access is not available. Contact IT helpdesk for more
information." This is odd as I am a home user and am the administrator of
the PC. Nevertheless, I proceed: I press OK, go to Virus & Threat Protection
> Ransomware protection and it says in yellow type "Controlled folder access
requires turning on Real-time protection." and the little button under
Controlled folder access is grayed out and set to Off.

So are Protected Folders on? Does Image for Windows have a special way of
detecting this? How do I disable protected folders or tell if it is really
on, in light of the info above?

Thanks in advance for anyone's help.

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