Application Whitelisting is probably the best protecton agains most crypto trojans (after backups or course).
The basic idea is that only software in specific directories (Windows and ProgramFiles) is is allowed to run, but everything else is blocked, and restricted users do not have write permission in the permitted directories.
Thus only admin can install writable programs, and admin is usually more careful than users.
Users cannot involuntarily trigger execution of email attachements, or web downloads, not even most driveby downloads that exploit a vulnerability in the web browser or an installed plugin.
AppLocker and SRP can be used to do blacklisting or whitelisting. Whitelisting is much more secure, but more likely to be unpleasant for the users.
Blacklisting can be used to block execution of programs in the directories through most infections today occur. Whitelisting allows only specific directories, and blocks everything else.
SRP existed already in Windows XP, and remained mostly(?) unchanged in 7, 8 and 10. It is included in the editions Pro, Ultimate, Enterprise, and Education.
AppLocker is available since Windows version 7, but only in Enterprise and Education editions. Applocker seems to exist Pro editions, because it can be configured, but it cannot be activated there (Microsoft is sometimes nasty).
The rest of this page is about SRP.
Beware of Microsofts automatic switching of defaults as soon as you activate SRP. The UI starts with having deny as default action for new rules which you add. But as soon as you turn SRP on, the default for new rules switches to allow.
As precaution you should first turn SRP on, before you add rules. This is possible, because Microsoft inserts two default rules. If you first add rules, and then activate it, you might involuntarily end up blocking important software, maybe even lock yourself out of Windows.
The UI behaves nicely when you add rules, but note that when you edit existing rules, the preselected button (which is activated when you just press the RET key to finish editing) is abort, i.e. discard your changes. I have never seen this anywhere else in Windows.
The default SRP of Windows does not directly specify paths, but names of registry values, which contain these paths.
In theory this is a good idea, because it catches special cases when the Windows directory is not on drive C:.
When you activate SRP, Windows automatically inserts two default rules. This is great because otherwise you could easily make Windows fail completely, with no easy possibility for repair.
There are two more missing items in the defaults, and these ones are outright dangerous.
You should not allow executables to run from these directories. Sometimes you must permit a single file or subdirectory, but do never ever allow the whole directory, because every user can create a subdirectory there, and has write permission in that.
See also: Sophos with SRP breaks DNS.
It is generally a good idea to inspect Event Viewer after activating SRP. Because everytime SRP blocks something, it creates an entry there, that tells which file was blocked.
Alternatively you can set SRP to report only, not block, and let it run in this mode a few days before fully activating it. Then Event Viewer can tell you potential issues before they happen.