It did register the shortcut creation.Īfter turning the Protected Folders feature off the VM could be created as usual. These events should be logged in the 'Microsoft-Windows-Windows Defender/Operational' eventlog but sadly that didn't register the creation of the VM. During the upgrade I got a message that VMware couldn't place the shortcut on the desktop because of Controlled Folder Access.

I checked the default location and there was a folder with standard ACL. In the last step after clicking finish I got a error with the message 'Unable to create a new virtual machine: File not found.' Creating the VM was not possible. Step 6: In the final step, if you want any particular app to have access to these folders, you can add them in the list of apps which have access to these folders.I just upgraded to Workstation 14.1.1 and wanted to test something on a VM so I tried to create a new VM and went through the steps configuring one. Once you protect these folders, no app can have access to these folders which means no app can save any files on to this folders. You can also add folders to the list in case you want another folder to be protected. Step 5: If you click Protected Folders, you can see the list of all folders protected by default. Step 4: Once you have enabled this, you can see two links below it- Protected Folders and Allow an app through Controlled folder access. Step 3: Scroll down and you will see an option called Controlled Folder Access.

Step 2: Click on the Virus and threat protection settings link below. In the Windows Defender, open Virus and threat protection option. Step 1: To enable controlled Folder access, open Windows Defender, you can type Windows Defender in the start menu and press enter. A notification will appear on the machine where the app attempted to make changes to a protected folder. By default when you enable Controlled Folder Access, all your files in Documents folder is enabled by default and you can also add any folder or app to it. All apps and files are assessed by Windows Defender Antivirus as a part of protection and in case it determines if the app is malicious or suspicious, then it will not be allowed to make changes to any files in any protected folder.