Potentially unwanted application protection

Potentially unwanted applications (PUAs) is a catch-all term to refer to software that is not, strictly speaking, malware but still compromises the machine’s integrity in several ways, particularly in the context of enterprise environments. PUAs might bundle lots of other unrelated apps in their installer and obfuscate the fact you’re also getting them. PUAs might also spam the user with excessive advertisements, put roadblocks in the way of uninstalling them, or consume excessive resources, potentially sideloading intensive processes such as hidden cryptocurrency miners.

In short, you probably don’t want these touching your devices.

Later in this chapter, you will learn about SmartScreen, a capability targeted at Windows 10/11 that can block PUAs based on reputation and heuristics. This prevents installation, but what about PUAs already installed when you deploy MDE and MDAV?

For Windows 10 E5 licensed devices...