Running a miner and need to Exclude a Folder from Windows Defender? The Windows 10 operating system defaults to the Windows Defender virus scan to protect your system from malware, ransomware, and other known threats. It’s built-in into the operating system as part of a set of security tools provided by Microsoft for free.
Overall, the Microsoft Defender virus scan works well at detecting threats, but there may be issues with false-positive flags. If you are running a crypto miner, then you more than likely have run into problems.
This guide will walk you through the steps to exclude a file or folder from Windows Defender. Of course, if there is just a file you want to exclude, you also have that option.
- Related: Setup lolMiner – Step by Step Guide
Steps to Exclude a Folder from Windows Defender
To begin, create a folder anywhere on your computer to exclude from Windows Defender.
Click on the Windows Security icon in the tray and open it up.
open windows defenderInside Windows Security, select ‘Virus & threat protection.’
virus & threat protectionScroll to ‘Virus & threat protection settings’ and click on Manage settings.
manage settingsScroll down to ‘Exclusions’ and select ‘Add or remove exclusions’
Add or remove exclusionsIn this section, select ‘Add an exclusion,’ then ‘Folder’
add FolderNow you can navigate to the folder you created at that start. Click on the folder, and then click ‘Select Folder.’
Select FolderYou will now see your folder listed below in the Exclusions list. You can close out all the windows that have been opened. It is now safe to download and extract files directly into this excluded folder. By following these steps to exclude a folder you will avoid issues of miners causing false-positive warnings.
If you feel like you don’t want the folder excluded anymore, return to the list, select the folder, and click ‘Remove.’