We are aware of the risk of excluding the specific files or folders that are mentioned in this article from scans that are made by your antivirus software. Your system will be safer if you don't exclude any files or folders from scans.

If you just want to exclude a single file or folder from antivirus scanning, you can do that by adding an exclusion. This is safer than turning the entire antivirus protection off

If you experience frequent game crashes or instability while playing State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves or Crackdown 3 on Windows 10, this may mean that your antivirus software is scanning the game. You can set file exclusions to prevent this from happening.

To add an exclusion in Microsoft Defender Antivirus: Select Start > Settings > Privacy & security > Windows Security. Open Windows Security Select Virus & threat protection. Under Virus & threat protection settings, select Manage settings. Scroll to Exclusions and select Add or remove exclusions.

Go to the Virus & threat protection > Virus & threat protection settings > Add or remove exclusions. Select Add an exclusion and follow the steps to set up an exclusion for a file, folder, file type or process.

Lists articles and websites that identify files and directories that should be excluded from malware scanning in Microsoft Forefront Client Security, Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 and Microsoft System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection.

On this page you can see a summary of the security providers that are looking after your device. In the Windows Security app on your PC, select Settings > Manage providers, or use the following link: Security providers.

Learn about the Windows Security app and some of the most common tools you can use.

In the Windows Security app on your PC, select App & browser control, or use the following shortcut: App & browser control. Smart App Control adds significant protection from new and emerging threats by blocking apps that are malicious or untrusted.

If you use more than one antivirus or antispyware program at the same time, your PC may experience decreased performance, become unstable, or restart unexpectedly.