Category Archives: Definitions

What’s startupware?(tm)
The source for all definitions of startupware.

Creator’s Update Settings: SmartScreen

Definitions

New SmartScreen Setting

In the new Creator’s Update for Windows 10, SmartScreen has finally been made less horrible. The old settings were:

  • Off-Let all software run.
  • On-All new software from all sources is evil by definition. It’s not Microsoft, in any case. Delete with no option or recourse. (Or the anti-competitive restraint of trade equivalent.)

The NEW options, now moved into the ‘Windows Defender Security Center’, are no longer blatantly big brother:

  • On-Block the new and different.
  • Warn-Slow down and read the message before deciding.
  • Off–Scary, scary.

OK, I may have changed the descriptions. A lot. But clearly, SmartScreen should be ON for novice users and corporations with a “no software installs” policy, and WARN for users who know WHERE they are and WHAT they’re doing.

Note that the new setting appears TWICE, once as ‘Check apps and files’ for Internet Explorer, and as ‘SmarScreen for Microsoft Edge’. Minus 5 points for inconsistent naming and spreading confusion, but still an improvement.

Taming Windows 10: Choose Which Folders Appear on Start

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A reprint from the PC410 Security Newsletter:

Windows 10: Choose which folders appear on start

Windows 10 removes the Documents and Pictures shortcuts from the Start menu. You can have them back, or choose to show Music, Videos, or the Network. Go to Settings, Personalization, Start, click on “Choose which folders appear on Start”. Turn on (or off) any of the folders in the list. If you turn a folder off, you can still get to it from File Explorer (the yellow file folder icon in the taskbar), or by pressing Start and typing in the folder name to search for it.

Taming Windows 10: Browser Defaults

Definitions, ,

A reprint from the PC410 Security Newsletter:

Default browser settings in Windows 10

The browser default for Windows 10 is Edge, and it’s not ready for use on many websites, especially sites with advanced usage of forms. Switching the browser default to Internet Explorer 11 is an easy fix, or, even better, switching to either Google Chrome or Firefox, both of which protect users from evil sites better than Microsoft browsers, which are, in fairness, target number 1 for evil website developers.

To change the default browser, go to Settings, System, Default Apps, and in the Web Browser category, click on Edge, and select from the installed browsers in the list that appears.

Sometimes, Windows 10 will argue the point. Another way to set default apps is to go to Control Panel, Programs, Default Programs, Set Default Programs, find the program in the list on the left side, and on the right, click ‘Set this program as default.’