Early Launch Anti-Malware protection
Windows Defender takes advantage of Early-Launch Anti-Malware, and you, therefore, see that it no longer loads after the start-up process is complete, but early on during the boot process. Third-party antivirus software too, is able to take advantage of the ELAM technology. To do so, they will have to integrate the same Early Launch Anti-Malware (ELAM) capability in their software. To help security software vendors get started, Microsoft has released a whitepaper that provides information about developing Early Launch Anti-Malware (ELAM) drivers for Windows operating systems. It provides guidelines for anti-malware developers to develop anti-malware drivers that are initialized before other boot-start drivers, and ensure that those subsequent drivers do not contain malware. Several antivirus companies, who have released their updated solutions for Windows already incorporate this technology. The Early Launch Antimalware boot-start driver has classified the drivers as follows: By default, Windows 10 loads those drivers which have been classified as Good, Unknown, and Bad but Boot Critical; ie 1, 3 and 4 above. Bad drivers are not loaded.
Configure Boot-Start Driver Initialization Policy using Group Policy Editor
While this setting is best left at its default value, if you wish, you can change this setting via your Group Policy Editor. To do so, open the WinX menu > Run > gpedit.msc > Hit Enter. Navigate to the following policy setting:
In the right pane, double-click on Boot-Start Driver Initialization Policy to configure it.
You will see the default configuration of Not Configured. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, the boot-start drivers determined to be Good, Unknown or Bad but Boot Critical are initialized, and the initialization of drivers determined to be Bad is skipped. If you Enable this policy setting, you will be able to choose which boot-start drivers to initialize the next time the computer is started. If you are using Windows 10/8, you want to check if your anti-malware software includes an Early Launch Antimalware boot-start driver. If it doesn’t, all boot-start drivers will be initialized, and you will not be able to take advantage of this new ELAM technology.
