In order to do that you need to add applications to the whitelist which will exclude them and they can access protected files and folder. You must be want and specific sets of applications to access your files inside protected folder. Add Apps to Whitelist so they can access Protected folders

If you try to save a new file in the protected folder, you’ll get following error message:Ĭheck the file name and try again. You will see this notification in action Centre when this happens.Ĭontrolled folder access blocked from making changes to the folder So what happened when third-party software will try to access the files inside protected folder, you will see an immediate notification in action center saying that this specific app tried to access this specific file or folder and it was blocked by windows defender. If you look closely you will see that there will be some folders which you cannot remove because they are system folders, search folders are document, pictures, music, video, desktop, and favorite. TIP: From the protected folder list you can remove a folder by clicking on that folder name following remove button.

Under control folder access click on the protected folder link and then click on the plus icon and navigate to the folder which you want to protect or restrict Access for other users and apps.

Controlled folder access blocked