Microsoft Edge Can Now Block Annoying Full-Screen Pop-Ups
Have you ever been scrolling, minding your own business, and suddenly an ad takes over your page with a full-screen warning about a computer virus or account insecurity? This is always a scam, but to the untrained eye it can look like a real firewall pop-up. That’s why Microsoft Edge uses AI to help users detect when someone is trying to scare them into downloading malware or revealing sensitive information.
The new browser malware blocker , available to all users in preview, is an AI-powered tool designed to deflect and avoid these nasty distractions. While Edge’s built-in Defender SmartScreen already blocks known scams, the idea is for the Scareware blocker to help stop new threats.
The tool uses a local artificial intelligence model to detect when your browser goes into full-screen mode, which is the main malware pop-up window, and then checks to see if it looks like a scam. It was trained on “thousands of fraud examples shared by the anti-fraud community” with Microsoft, and supposedly does not store images or send them to the cloud at any stage.
While users can manually hold down the ESC key to exit full-screen mode at any time, the model will do this for you by taking a screenshot of the site and taking you to a page that warns you that it looks suspicious. You will then have the option to either close the page or continue.
In addition to protecting users susceptible to scams, the Scareware blocker is also designed to reduce panic when encountering one of these advertisements, as they often also play loud sounds and hide the mouse cursor. This feature quickly closes them and redirects you to a warning page to help you recover.
Although I’ve encountered this ad before, I wasn’t able to trigger it when trying to test this feature, but it’s easy enough to enable. Just go to Settings > Privacy & Services Search and scroll down a little until you see the Scareware block switch. Turn it on and you’ll be prepared the next time a scammer tries to scare you into selling yourself.
If you don’t see the switch, you may need to update Edge (under Settings > About Microsoft Edge ) or restart the browser.