---
title: Windows Defender Application Control design guide (Windows 10)
description: Microsoft Windows Defender Device Guard is a feature set that consists of both hardware and software system integrity hardening features that revolutionize the Windows operating system’s security.
keywords: virtualization, security, malware
ms.prod: w10
ms.mktglfcycl: deploy
ms.localizationpriority: medium
author: dansimp
manager: dansimp
audience: ITPro
ms.collection: M365-security-compliance
ms.topic: conceptual
ms.date: 02/20/2018
ms.reviewer: 
ms.author: dansimp
---

# Windows Defender Application Control design guide

**Applies to**
- Windows 10
- Windows Server

This guide covers design and planning for Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC). It is intended to help security architects, security administrators, and system administrators create a plan that addresses specific application control requirements for different departments or business groups within an organization.


## In this section

| Topic | Description |
| - | - |
| [Understand WDAC policy design decisions](understand-windows-defender-application-control-policy-design-decisions.md) | This topic lists the design questions, possible answers, and ramifications of the decisions when you plan a deployment of application control policies. |
| [Select the types of rules to create](select-types-of-rules-to-create.md) | This topic lists resources you can use when selecting your application control policy rules by using WDAC. |
| [Plan for WDAC policy management](plan-windows-defender-application-control-management.md) | This topic describes the decisions you need to make to establish the processes for managing and maintaining WDAC policies. |
| [Create your WDAC planning document](create-your-windows-defender-application-control-planning-document.md) | This planning topic summarizes the information you need to research and include in your planning document. | 
 
After planning is complete, the next step is to deploy WDAC. The [Windows Defender Application Control Deployment Guide](windows-defender-application-control-deployment-guide.md) covers the creation and testing of policies, deploying the enforcement setting, and managing and maintaining the policies.