Windows Registry hack can make your Windows Defender a super adware killer

Everyone hates including me hates adware. They are worst unwanted critters of any operating system especially Windows 7/8.1 or the newly released Windows 10. Though there are several trusted Apps to remove such malware it is always better to have a native application that can kill such adware in the bud.
Yesterday Microsoft announced that its new enterprise security products come with a new feature that also stops potentially unwanted software and adware. The functionality was actually first made available to enterprises. To protect them against unwanted applications, Microsoft added a new opt-in feature to the enterprise solutions System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP) and Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP). Combined with Windows Defender these applications are able to block downloading and installing unwanted software. The Windows Defender detect and remove now also potentially unwanted applications (PUAs) such as adware that piggybacking is installed with freeware tools.
However this was only for enterprises and businesses. Luckily for us, a German website, Heise has discovered that tweaking the Windows Defender entry in the Windows Registry can make it a potent adware killer. Windows Defender is Microsoft’s security solution and available on all systems since Windows 8, it can be considered the successor to Microsoft’s Security Essentials.
Easy registry hack makes Windows Defender an adware killer
Courtesy Heise

How to go about it

Heise has discovered that using a registry hack it’s also possible to consumers to get the additional protection.  According to Heise the hack works well in Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Home and Pro versions. It can easily kill the adware once you make changes in your Registry Keys.

How To Open Registry Editor

  1. In Windows 10 or Windows 8.1, right-click or tap-and-hold the Start button and then choose Run. Prior to Windows 8.1, Run is most easily available from the Apps screen.In Windows 7 or Windows Vista, click on Start.In Windows XP, click on the Start button and then click Run….
  2. In the search box, or Run window, type the following:
    regedit
    and then press Enter.
    Note: Depending on your version of Windows, and how it’s configured, you may see a User Account Control dialog box where you’ll need to confirm that you want to open Registry Editor.
  3. Registry Editor will open.
To activate the adware killer feature in Windows Defender an entry in the registry under “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows Defender \ MpEngine” with a DWORD named “MpEnablePus” with the value “1” is to be made.  
To enable the feature you can add the text below to ‘defender.reg’. After you open the file the changes are made. You can also download this file (save as). Double click on the file and it will automatically be saved in the Registry.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\MpEngine] “MpEnablePus”=dword:00000001
Do remember to backup your Registry before embarking on this hack. Also kindly do it at your own risk.