Adds Windows Defender exclusions for Visual Studio 2022

Windows Defender Exclusions VS 2022.ps1

$userPath = $env:USERPROFILE
$pathExclusions = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList
$processExclusions = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList

$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Windows\assembly') > $null

$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\Downloads\HeidiSQL_11.3_64_Portable') > $null

$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\.dotnet') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\.librarymanager') > $null

$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio Services') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\AppData\Local\GitCredentialManager') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\AppData\Local\GitHubVisualStudio') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\AppData\Local\Microsoft\dotnet') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VSApplicationInsights') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VSCommon') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\AppData\Local\Temp\VSFeedbackIntelliCodeLogs') > $null

$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\VisualStudio') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\AppData\Roaming\NuGet') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\AppData\Roaming\Visual Studio Setup') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\AppData\Roaming\vstelemetry') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\AppData\Roaming\HeidiSQL') > $null

$pathExclusions.Add('C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\VisualStudio') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\NetFramework') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\ProgramData\Microsoft Visual Studio') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\ProgramData\MySQL') > $null

$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files\dotnet') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files\MySQL') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files\IIS') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files\IIS Express') > $null

$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\dotnet') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express') > $null

$processExclusions.Add('ServiceHub.SettingsHost.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('ServiceHub.IdentityHost.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('ServiceHub.VSDetouredHost.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('ServiceHub.Host.CLR.x86.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('Microsoft.ServiceHub.Controller.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('PerfWatson2.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('sqlwriter.exe') > $null

Write-Host "This script will create Windows Defender exclusions for common Visual Studio 2022 folders and processes."
Write-Host ""
$projectsFolder = Read-Host 'What is the path to your Projects folder? (example: c:\source)'

Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Adding Path Exclusion: " $projectsFolder
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath $projectsFolder

foreach ($exclusion in $pathExclusions) 
{
    Write-Host "Adding Path Exclusion: " $exclusion
    Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath $exclusion
}

foreach ($exclusion in $processExclusions)
{
    Write-Host "Adding Process Exclusion: " $exclusion
    Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess $exclusion
}

Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Your Exclusions:"

$prefs = Get-MpPreference
$prefs.ExclusionPath
$prefs.ExclusionProcess

Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Enjoy faster build times and coding!"
Write-Host ""

I ran this from a powershell v7.4.1 shell with admin rights and got this error message:

Add-MpPreference: Operation failed with the following error: 0x%1!x!

This looks very specific to your own setup,
'\Downloads\HeidiSQL_11.3_64_Portable'

Thanks!

Hi @Braytiner . I just upgraded from Windows Server 2016 Data Center Edition (AWS Workspace) to a bare metal desktop computer running Windows 11, and iisexpress.exe is incredibly slow. I don't think my IT department will allow us to add these exclusions as it adds risk for a confused deputy attack whereby an attacker uses a vulnerability in one of the dlls in one of these many paths to gain enhanced privileges to the system. Just wondering if you have any tips on troubleshooting iisexpress.exe slowness in general, as requests are taking like 30-45 seconds on my computer when calling BeginRequest. The bottleneck seems to be on Autofac Resolve but I'm sure that's a red herring as the same code on the same Autofac dependency version was working vine on Windows Server 2016 Data Center Edition. Thanks and would be happy to buy you a coffee in advance!