How to enable Advanced Graphics in Application Guard for Edge

In this article, we will show you how to enable Advanced Graphics in Application Guard for Edge on Windows 11/10. If you have an Enterprise edition of Windows 11/10 operating system, you can enable and install Microsoft Defender Application Guard. This technology helps users protect their computer systems from virus and malware attacks when they visit untrusted or unsafe websites. After enabling this feature, you can open Microsoft Edge in a new Application Guard Window. The Application Guard Window is an isolated Hyper-V-enabled container completely separated from your normal browsing session on your computer. Since Edge is opened in a virtual environment, some features that you use in a normal browsing session, like printing files from Edge, copying and pasting in Edge, etc., do not work here. Hence, you have to enable them.

How to enable Advanced Graphics in Application Guard for Edge

The following methods will show you how to enable Advanced Graphics in Application Guard for Edge. By enabling this feature, you will experience enhanced video and graphics performance with a Hyper-V Virtualization environment while using Edge in the Application Guard window.

Via Windows 11/10 Settings
Via Registry Editor

1] Enable Advanced Graphics in Application Guard for Edge via Windows Settings

Follow the instructions provided below:

Open Windows Security.
Go to App & browser control.
Under the Isolated browsing section, click on the Change Application Guard settings link.
On the next screen, turn on the Advanced graphics button.

The above steps will enable the Advanced Graphics in Application Guard for Edge on Windows 11/10. If you want to disable this feature, turn off the Advanced graphics button.

2] Enable Advanced Graphics in Application Guard for Edge via Registry Editor

This method shows you how to enable Advanced Graphics via Registry Editor. You have to modify Windows Registry. Therefore, follow the instructions provided below carefully. It is better to create a System Restore Point and back up your Registry before proceeding.

Open the Run command box and type regedit. Click OK. Click Yes in the UAC prompt. This will open the Registry Editor.

When the Registry Editor opens up, go to the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Hvsi

The easiest way is to copy the above path and paste it into the address bar of the Registry Editor. After that, press Enter. Make sure that you have selected the Hvsi subkey on the left side. If the Hvsi subkey does not exist under the Microsoft key, you have to create it manually. For this, right-click on the Microsoft key and go to “New > Key.” Now, give the name Hvsi to this newly created subkey.

Select the Hvsi subkey and look for the EnableVirtualGPU value on the right side. If the EnableVirtualGPU value does not exist, create it. To do so, right-click in the empty space on the right side and go to “New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.” Name this newly created value EnableVirtualGPU.

Double-click on the EnableVirtualGPU value and change its Value data to 1. Click OK and restart your computer.

The above steps will enable the Advanced Graphics in Application Guard for Edge. If you want to disable it again, change the Value data of EnableVirtualGPU to 0 and restart your computer.

Also read: How to enable Print from Application Guard for Edge

Where can you find the option to enable Application Guard?

The option to enable the Application Guard on your Windows 11/10 computer is available in Windows Features. Just select the required checkbox and click OK. After that, Windows will download the required files to turn on this feature. This process may take some time. Do not terminate this process. When the process gets completed, you may be asked to restart your computer.

Is Application Guard worth it?

Microsoft Defender Application Guard is an excellent enterprise edition Windows operating systems feature. It opens Microsoft Edge in an isolated Hyper-V-enabled window so users can visit untrusted websites. Surfing the internet with Application Guard for Edge protects users’ computers from virus and malware attacks.

I hope this helps.