What is App & Browser Control and how to hide it in Windows 11

The App & Browser Control in Windows Security on Windows 11/10 lists the available options for Windows Defender SmartScreen. SmartScreen is a feature that can protect your device from potentially dangerous downloads, websites or files. In this post, we will explain what is App & Browser Control in Windows 11/10 and how you can prevent access to the area using GPEDIT or REGEDIT.

App & Browser Control in Windows 11/10

To open Windows Security app, search for ‘windows security‘ and slick on the result. The App & Browser Control protection area in Windows Security, is one of the seven areas that protect your device and let you specify how you want your device protected in Windows Defender Security Center. The seven areas include-

• Virus & threat protection
• Account protection
• Firewall & network protection
• App & browser control
• Device security
• Device performance & health
• Family options.

App & browser control, update settings for Windows Defender SmartScreen to help protect your device against potentially dangerous apps, files, sites, and downloads. You’ll have Exploit Protection and you can customize protection settings for your devices.

The sections you can see here are:

1. Check apps and files
2. SmartScreen for Microsoft Edge
3. SmartScreen for Microsoft Store apps
4. Isolated browsing – Install Application Guard
5. Exploit protection.

The following settings can be seen here:

1. Block unrecognized apps, files, malicious sites, downloads, and web content.
2. Set up warnings for unrecognized apps, files, malicious sites, downloads, and web content.
3. Turn off blocking and warnings altogether.

The App & browser control area can be hidden from users. This can be useful if, as an admin, you don’t want them to see or have access to this area. If you choose to hide the Account protection area, it will no longer appear on the Windows Security Center home page, and its icon will not appear in the app’s side navigation bar.

Show or Hide App & browser control in Windows Security via GPEDIT

1. Run gpedit to open the Group Policy Editor
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative templates > Windows components > Windows Security > App & browser protection.
3. Open the Hide the App and browser protection area setting
4. Set it to Enabled.
5. Click OK.

Hide App & browser control in Windows Security via Registry

1. Double-click the downloaded Hide-App-&-browser-control.reg file to merge it.
2. Click Run on the prompt. Click Yes on UAC prompt and OK to allow the merge.
3. Restart PC to apply.
4. You can now delete the downloaded .reg file.

Show App & browser control in Windows Security via Registry

1. Double-click the downloaded Show-App-&-browser-control.reg file to merge it.
2. Click Run on the prompt. Click Yes on UAC prompt, and OK to allow the merge.
3. Restart PC to apply.
4. You can now delete the downloaded .reg file.

You can click here to download the zipped Registry files from our servers.