Windows 10: Controlled folder access is greyed out

In the new Fall update there is a controlled folder access option. Which I would much like to use. I think it is meant to be on by default, for at least basic protection.. Mine is both off and greyed out so that I can not turn it on. I've read a couple of random internet postings that say this could be either; it's not available to the Home edition ( I have the home edition) or it won't work with third party AV software running. I have BitDefender free.
I see no reference in Microsoft's description to this new function that confirms either of these. Is there a solution, or at least a verifiable explanation?

:)

 

Windows 10 Blocked mrt.exe by administrator and refuses to run MRT

Controlled folder access is GREYED out and wont let me toggle it, but it is in the off position.

 

Controlled Folder Access disabled/greyed out.

Thanks, How stupid that is. You can only protect these folders if you remove your other (better) AV protection

 

Change Windows Defender Controlled Folder Access Settings - Windows 10 Security System Tutorials

Though I'm not sure it'll help with it being greyed out.
Maybe this comment is relevant:

With a 3rd party AV installed Defender's real-time scanning would be disabled.

There is a comment in the tutorial following it asking about the Home edition, but the Tutorial does not exclude that from what I read.

More here:
Windows 10's "Controlled Folder Access" Anti-Ransomware Feature Is Now Live

It's often worth searching the extensive Tutorial section:
Windows 10 Tutorial Index Tutorials

 

That's it then. Real Time protection is off and can't be turned on. How stupid! Protecting folders from unauthorised programme access is totally different from general AV protection. Why should one be tied to the other. Or is this Microsoft trying to force us to use their relatively poor AV protection instead of the various well regarded alternatives.

 

- and not even some sort of helpful indication - like 'You can't use this because you've chosen not to use my lovely real time protection- so I'm sulking!'

 

Yeah. and the really annoying thing for me is that it was my cunning plan to use this to protect my backuppartitions/external USB hdd so that if the main partitions get nuked by ransomware I can rely on the automatic backups. (Only the B/U software programmes - Macrium and a separate file b/u utilty would be allowed to write to those drives). *Sad
It seemed the ideal solution to the problem that ransomware will attack any connected drive - but regularly doing manual backups to a device that is then removed defeats the object of automatic backups. ( I do have a backup on a spare drive, that I update from time to time and I've stuff in various free "cloud" accounts too).

 

Good idea.. In the past there was some light-hearted discussion about controlling power to backup drives. If you do something obscure enough that ransomware etc won't replicate it, that protects your drives, assuming they need only be accessible on a known schedule.

And if powered down, they are protected even from power spikes.

Personally I'd not trust a new MS feature near my backups.

 

Hi, would you mind seeing if you can disable Bitdefender so as to enable Defender's real time scan to see if the button is enabled?

Brink would make an addition to the tutorial if that can be confirmed. (Worst case- might not be possible to enable Defender with Bitdefender installed).

Change Windows Defender Controlled Folder Access Settings - Windows 10 - Page 2 - Security System Tutorials