How to Enable or Disable Copy and Paste with Application Guard for Edge in Windows 11

camera gcc
camera gcc

This article describes steps one can take to enable or disable copy and paste to and from the Microsoft Defender Application Guard for the Microsoft Edge browser in Windows 11.

Microsoft Defender Application Guard works with Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Office app, and browser to help isolate untrusted sites and prevents untrusted Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files from accessing trusted resources.

When installing and enabling the Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Edge, specific actions such as camera, microphone, and print files are disabled. For example, copying and pasting to and from the Application Guard for Edge windows is disabled. You must turn on these settings to copy and paste within the Edge Application Guard window.

Below is how to enable or disable copy and paste to and from the Microsoft Defender Application Guard with Microsoft Edge browser in Windows 11.

Turn on or off a copy and paste in Microsoft Edge browser with Defender Application Guard

As described above, when you install and enable Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Edge, specific actions are disabled. For example, copying and pasting to and from the Edge Application Guard windows is disabled.

Below is how to turn on or off a copy and paste to and from the Application Guard with the Microsoft Edge browser.

First, you must install and enable Microsoft Defender Application Guard for the Microsoft Edge browser. If you haven’t already, read the post below to do so.

How to install and enable Microsoft Defender Application Guarde for Edge browser

After installing, open the Windows Security app.

You can do that by clicking on the Start menu and searching for “Windows Security.” Then, under best match, select the Windows Security app to open.

windows security app search on start menu
windows security app search on the start menu

When the Windows Security app opens, click the App & browser control section.

windows 11 app and browser control section windows security app
windows 11 app and browser control section windows security app

On the App & browser control settings page of the Windows Security app, under Isolated browsing, click the link “Change Application Guard settings.”

windows change application guard settings
Windows change application guard settings

On the next window, under Copy and paste, toggle the button to the On position to enable copy and paste to and from Application Guard for Microsoft Edge.

To disable it, toggle the button back to the Off position.

windows change application guard enable copy and paste
windows change application guard enable Copy and paste

You must restart your computer for the changes to apply.

Enable or disable copy and paste in Application Guard via the Windows Registry Editor

If you can’t open the Local Group Policy Editor, you can use the Windows Registry editor instead.

Open the Windows Registry, and navigate to the folder key path as listed below.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Hvsi

If you don’t see the Hvsi folder key, right-click on the Microsoft key, then create the subkey (Hvsi) folders.

windows applicaton guard for edge enable copy and paste
windows application guard for edge enable Copy and paste

Right-click on the Hvsi folder key’s right pane and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value. Type a new key named EnableClipboard.

Double-click the new value name (EnableClipboard) and enter the Value data of 1 to enable copy and paste from and to Application Guard for Edge.

Value data of 0 to disable copy and paste from and to Application Guard for Edge.

windows applicaton guard for edge enable copy and paste value data
windows application guard for edge enable copy and paste value data

Restart your computer for the changes to apply.

Once installed, press the keyboard shortcut to use Microsoft Edge in isolated mode with Application Guard (CTRL + SHIFT + Q).

You can also click on the Edge browser menu (3 vertical dots) and select New Application Guard windows (CTRL + SHIFT + A).

windows 11 new application guard window
windows 11 new application guard window

That should do it!

Reference:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/microsoft-defender-application-guard/md-app-guard-overview

Conclusion:

This post showed you how to enable or disable copy and paste to and from the Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Edge browser in Windows 11. Please use the comment form below if you find any errors above or have something to add.

Posted by
Richard W

I love computers; maybe way too much. What I learned I try to share at geekrewind.com.

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