Adds Windows Defender exclusions for Visual Studio 2019

Windows Defender Exclusions VS 2019.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 + '\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\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\Microsoft\VisualStudio') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\.dotnet') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\.librarymanager') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add($userPath + '\AppData\Local\Temp\VSFeedbackIntelliCodeLogs') > $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:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files\dotnet') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\NuGetPackages') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\TypeScript') > $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\Microsoft SQL Server') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Entity Framework Tools') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files\IIS') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files\IIS Express') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Web Tools') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft.NET') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files\MySQL') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\ProgramData\MySQL') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\NuGet') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files\Git') > $null
$pathExclusions.Add('C:\ProgramData\Git') > $null

$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe') > $null

$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files\dotnet\dotnet.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\JetBrains\JetBrains Rider 2020.3.2\lib\ReSharperHost\windows-x64\dotnet\dotnet.exe') > $null

$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\JetBrains\JetBrains Rider 2020.3.2\tools\MSBuild\Current\Bin\amd64\MSBuild.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\JetBrains\JetBrains Rider 2020.3.2\tools\MSBuild\Current\Bin\ref\MSBuild.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\JetBrains\JetBrains Rider 2020.3.2\tools\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MSBuild.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Current\Bin\amd64\MSBuild.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MSBuild.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\MSBuild\Current\Bin\amd64\MSBuild.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MSBuild.exe') > $null

$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\NodeJs\node.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\NodeJs\win-x64\node.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\NodeJs\node.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\NodeJs\win-x64\node.exe') > $null

# SO many git paths on my system, plus I want code downloaded from github/etc. to be scanned
# $processExclusions.Add('git.exe') > $null 

# 32 separate paths to node.js files and I don't do a lot of node development - Skipping for now
# $processExclusions.Add('node.js') > $null

$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\PerfWatson2.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\Common7\IDE\PerfWatson2.exe') > $null

$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\Common7\ServiceHub\Hosts\ServiceHub.Host.Node.x86\ServiceHub.Host.Node.x86.exe') > $null
$processExclusions.Add('C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\Common7\ServiceHub\Hosts\ServiceHub.Host.Node.x86\ServiceHub.Host.Node.x86.exe') > $null

# Build cache
# $processExclusions.Add('vbcscompiler.exe') > $null

Write-Host "This script will create Windows Defender exclusions for common Visual Studio 2019 folders and processes."
Write-Host ""
$projectsFolder = Read-Host 'What is the path to your Projects folder? (example: C:\Projects)'

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 ""

This fork updates the process exclusions to use absolute paths for increased security, as well as remove a few exclusions (for 3rd party programs I do not use, git (for now), and node.js*

*There were an absurd number of paths to this on my system, and not sure which are used (I rarely code in Node).