Installation

Install it from the Microsoft Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9png1jddtgp8

Documentation

What's New

• AppControl Manager can now open App Control Policy XML files directly from the File Explorer. It will appear as an option in the "Open With" right-click context menu. You can optionally configure it as the default handler for XML files which will let you easily double-click/tap on an App Control XML file and open it in AppControl Manager's Policy Editor.

  • If the location where the file is located requires elevated permissions for write access then AppControl Manager will request Administrator privileges (you will see a UAC prompt), otherwise it will launch with standard privileges.

• Changed the source of the Microsoft Recommended Driver block rules from the Microsoft Learn page's markdown to the zip file that Microsoft provides.

• Added an Info bar to the Policy Editor page that shows the status of the running operations.

• The Supplemental policy creation page has a new feature that allows you switch between different modes. The default mode is the same as before which is creating new supplemental policies, and there is a new mode that allows you to select an existing App Control policy and add any rules you create in the page to it. You can use this new mode to easily and quickly expand any of your existing App Control policies.

• Created a new C++ based program dedicated to managing every aspect of scheduled tasks. It will replace any calls to PowerShell cmdlets in the AppControl Manager and will later be used in the Harden Windows Security application as well. It is self-contained, small (300KB) and fast.

• When sorting or searching through the data in the ListViews, the horizontal scrolling position will be maintained and will no longer be reset to the left side, improving the user experience.

• All of the content dialogs in the app are now theme-aware and will react to the dark/light theme changes.

• Improved text translations for other languages.

• Code refactor and unification.

• Improved Microsoft Learn links in the comments so they are no longer language specific and will change according to your language.

• Added extra accessibility texts for various elements.

• Internalized Windows Service management. The application no longer uses the sc.exe, reducing dependency on executables outside of the AppControl Manager package.

PRs:

• AppControl-Manager-DownloadLink-Version-Update-Version-2.0.13.0 by @github-actions in #702
• AppControl Manager v2.0.14.0 by @HotCakeX in #704
• AppControl Manager v2.0.14.0 continuation by @HotCakeX in #708

How to verify the MSIXBundle's authenticity:

gh attestation verify "Path To MSIXBundle" --repo HotCakeX/Harden-Windows-Security --format json

You can install the GitHub CLI from Winget:

winget install --id GitHub.cli