How to enable built-in ransomware protection on Windows 11

Galaxy Book4 Pro

The touch input also makes it a large screen tablet (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The integrated security features on PCs running on Windows 11 OS offer virus and threat protection along with ransomware protection for free. Once enabled, a PC will become more secure and less prone to ransomware attacks, which have become rampant these days. Here is how you can enable ransomware protection on Windows 11 PCs to protect them from online threats.

Note that ransomware protection is disabled by default for those who don’t use OneDrive, and once enabled, it changes the way a PC functions. Additionally, it comes with integrated data recovery capability, but to use these features, one needs a lot of cloud storage on OneDrive and Microsoft offers free 5 GB of storage for every account.

How to enable ransomware protection on Windows 11 PCs:

Ransomware protection

Ransomware protection is linked to OneDrive on Windows PCs (Express Photo)

Go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Windows Security > Virus and Threat Protection > Ransomware Protection > Setup OneDrive and log in using your Microsoft account. If it says “no action required,” then the feature is already active on your PC.

Ransomware protection

Windows also allows users to create protected folders for added security (Express Photo)

Next, go to Manage ransomware protection and enable controlled folder access. Once enabled, it will automatically protect all files stored on the device and block unauthorized apps from accessing the data.

There is also an option to create protected folders, and one can whitelist certain apps via controlled folder access. If you are using a third-party antivirus solution, the settings to enable ransomware protection might vary.

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