Tech Desk 
Jan 29, 2025
If you're a regular Microsoft Edge user or new to computing, you'll want to know about the browser's latest feature: a built-in scareware blocker.
This new built-in security feature aims to keep users from falling for malware that attempts to trick them into giving out personal or financial information by filling their screens with flashing banners or full-screen alerts designed to scare them into taking action.
Initially, Microsoft announced it was working on a scareware blocker for Edge last November at the 2024 Ignite Conference, and this week the company rolled out details about how the feature works as well as the preview function.
Users who would like to try out the scareware blocker can do so by ensuring that previews are allowed and that Edge is fully up-to-date.
You can easily check this by clicking the three-dot icon at the top right, selecting Help and Feedback in the menu, then About Microsoft Edge and then installing the latest version of the browser and restarting.
You will be able to see the scareware blocker preview listed under “Privacy Search and Services.”
The Scareware blocker identifies that tries to open full-screen with thousands of sample scans; to do so, it uses machine learning that runs locally on your computer and doesn’t save or send any image to the cloud.
If the blocker identifies a page as a scam, Edge will exit the full-screen page, stop any audio playback, warn the user and proceed to show a thumbnail view of the page.
This scareware blocker is claimed to be different from the SmartScreen feature built into Microsoft Defender, which is a cloud-based tool that helps users by collecting reported scareware sites and other threats.
