Microsoft revealed recently that it plans to regain the trust of its users and focus in areas such as Windows stability and security. Yesterday, the company announced two new initiatives that it says will strengthen “Windows trust and security through user transparency and consent”.
The two features, Windows Baseline Security Mode and User Transparency and Consent, will make Windows more resilient according to Microsoft.
Baseline Security Mode is a new architectural safeguard designed to ensure that every application, regardless of its origin, operates within a set of “safe” boundaries by default. Only “properly signed apps, services and drivers” are allowed to run by default, but users and administrators may override the defaults to run apps, services or drivers that do not meet the new requirements.
User Transparency and Consent shifts the Windows experience toward a mobile-centric privacy model, giving users granular control over what their apps can access. This includes new real-time prompts by apps when they try to access sensitive data, such as the location, camera, or personal files, or install unintended software.
Microsoft plans to roll out the changes “through a phased approach”. It says that it is already working with partners and that the work has begun already. Next step is — probably — the integration in Insider builds for a first round of extended tests before the features will land eventually on stable machines.
It remains to be seen how these features are integrated. Run-time permission prompts sound useful, as they introduce much needed transparency to Windows for users. Baseline security mode could go either way. It might help protect machines, especially in corporate environments, but it could also become a nightmare for users who need to run something that is not signed or meeting Microsoft’s requirements. Especially, if there is no easy option to whitelist apps, drivers, or services.
It does not look as if this is coming soon, as Microsoft seems to have taken a cautious approach to introducing major new features to Windows. Slow, steady and stable could be the mantra of the year for Microsoft, especially after a rather frustrating first patch day in January 2026.
‘Windows Baseline Security Mode’ and ‘User Transparency and Consent’.
Wow. As if Microsoft fell under the charm of French traditions with the creation of new services with long names for each new problem encountered, services which for most have one quality and one only: certify that the problem is known and is under control.
Nothing of the sort with previous versions of Microsoft which didn’t need any exotic features tp pretend fixing issues given there were no issues of this type.
The company reminds me ‘Bozo the clown’, an American TV show of the sixties. Windows nowadays, after being rotten as a tomato as inquisitive as the Stasi, is now pathetic.
That is still better than the infantilism that is haunting Germany: Good Daycare Act, Strong Families Act, or Orderly Return Act are just some examples with extreme framing. We still have laws like “Verkehrsinfrastrukturfinanzierungsgesellschaftsgesetz”. Yes, one word.
“Smartphone-Style Privacy”?
Smartphones are anything but private. Is this some kind of joke?
This does sound like a nightmare. I’ve gone to great lengths to remove the “online” requirements (spyware) of my “single player” games I’ve pruchased.
The last thing I need is Big Brother looking over my shoulder at every exe I run.
This is just a reference to the permissions-based system, not a general remark on smartphone privacy.
Let me guess? Only third-party apps will have the option to give/deny consent on what they are allowed to do.
All Microsoft apps won’t have the same granularity, or they won’t even give the option to deny consent.
As far as I’m concerned, Microsoft is not allowed to rebuild the bridge that they burned.