Windows 10 Home - "Unauthorized changes blocked"

Anonymous
2017-12-05T21:26:24+00:00

THIS WAS ANSWERED BY ANDRE DA COSTA ON 12/5/17 - his "fix" worked perfectly - I thought I marked this "ANSWERED" - please check his answer, below this initial post.  

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/profile/e5564792-9930-4912-828b-e206924b132a

I'm using Windows 10 x64 Home on an HP laptop - Suddenly, I can no longer download photos from my SD card using the port on my laptop and my Photoshop Elements 15 - I get the following messages:

Unauthorized changes blocked

Controlled Folder Access blocked C:...\PhotoDownloader...from making changes to the folder %userprofil...$test$

Or:

Unauthorized changes blocked 

Controlled Folder Access blocked C:...\PhotoshopElement...from making changes to the folder %userprofile%\Documents

I want to use Photoshop in order to rename each photo as I download and I'm afraid this is completely blocking my use of Photoshop at all

I'm not computer literate so any help you can give needs to be in detailed, step by step format.

Thank you for any help you can offer

<Moved from Windows  / Windows 10  / Files, folders, & storage>

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Security and privacy

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2017-12-05T21:35:41+00:00

Open Windows Defender Security Center

Click Virus & threat protection

Click Virus & threat protection

Scroll down to the bottom then toggle off Controlled folder access

Try again

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-08-08T11:40:38+00:00

    My apologies is this has already been brought up, but here it goes just in case it hasn't.

    It is difficult to impossible to tell what app of which EXACT changes have been made when a notification pops up stating that "Controlled Folder Access blocked changes to a protected folder". The notification is so limited in contextual facts, it is in most situations completely useless.

    When I click on the notification expanded text arrow icon, it brings up Windows Defender at the allow an application setting. But the thing here is when the original notification does not reveal the actual application that triggered the protection, how in heavens is one supposed to know what app to allow or disallow to make the change to the protected folder? I see this as a security rick because someone might unknowingly allow an unfriendly app, due to the confusion of this limitation can cause.

    There is a desperate need to fix this, and the [simple] fix is to have the notification output the exact and complete path of the actual app, its complete name and the complete path to the protected folder that has seemingly been a breach attempt that is effected, instead of e.g., "Controlled folder access has blocked C:...\RuntimeBroker.ex... from making changes to %userprofile%\Pictures."  

    The latter path is clear enough to most experienced users. But not to 90% of users. What if there is a malware program in e.g. let's just say C:\apps\stuff\RuntimeBroker.exe ; yet as we know there is also a legitimate file with the same name in "C:\Windows\System32\RuntimeBroker.exe", which is a Microsoft application that runs the Microsoft app store among other things in the background.

    So if I am thinking that the path in the Notification is to [unknowingly the malware version of] RuntimeBroker.exe because for some reason that file is brought to my attention, let'a say for argument sake, because a Windows Search for "RuntimeBroker.exe's" first result is to the malware version, and then I  put it in the Exception list of Windows Defender, then there is going to be a REAL problem created by the lack of both experience of the user and information given by the Notifications.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-08-01T22:34:06+00:00

    does this allow only this one app to make changes or all apps in the future?

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-07-23T11:31:34+00:00

    Andre,

    Thanks for the tip, it helped solve my situation!

    Tim S

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-07-20T03:21:58+00:00

    I think it was VLC.

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