How to Add or Remove Exclusions for Windows Defender on Windows 11?

What are Windows Defender and its needs?

Windows Defender(formally Microsoft Defender) has just a single plan and comes pre-installed on Windows PCs. It includes a firewall and real-time virus defense and protects against ransomware by allowing you to control access to virtual folders so hackers can’t encrypt them.

When you install Windows 11 operating system on your machine, Microsoft defender starts protecting your computer until they find a third-party antivirus software. When you install a third-party, Microsoft defender sits in the background and hands over the command to your new antivirus. In the future, when you uninstall or disable third-party antivirus, Microsoft defender activates itself and again starts protecting your system.

The Microsoft Defender (Windows Defender) antivirus scans your computer’s files and folders for viruses and malware. If they find any, it blocks that from executing on your PC. If you wish to run an executable file and Microsoft Defender stops it, you can either turn off Microsoft Defender completely or add that file/folder to the exclusion list. We don’t recommend turning off Microsoft’s Defender entirely and leaving your PC in danger.

If you want to execute a file and Microsoft Defender stops you from doing so, we recommend you to add that to the exclusions list of Microsoft Defender. If you want, you can also add a folder to the exclusion list of Defender. The Defender program will stop scanning that file/folder and will keep monitoring other parts of your system.

How to Add Exclusions to Microsoft Defender on Windows 11?

To add a file or folder to the exclusion list of Microsoft Defender on Windows 11, perform the following steps:-

Step 1. Firstly, open the Windows Security app.

For that, click the Search button in the taskbar and type “Windows Security.” In the search results, click on its entry to open the same.

Step 2. When Windows Security opens, select Virtus & threat protection in the left sidebar.

Step 3. Then, click the link Manage settings under the “Virus & threat protection settings” section.

Step 4. After that, scroll down on the right sidebar and click the Add or remove exclusions link under the Exclusions header.

Step 5. Next, if the “User Account Control” dialog appears, hit the Yes button.

Step 6. Now, click the + Add An Exclusion button.

Step 7. You see a drop-down menu with four options:-

• File
• Folder
• File type
• Process

File: You can select a single file to add to the exclusion list.

Folder: If you want to exclude the entire folder and its sub-folder, choose this option.

File type: You can add file type in exclusion, for example, .docx.

Process: This option allows you to select a process to add to the exclusion list, for example, explorer.exe.

Select the appropriate option that you want to exclude from the list.

How to Remove Exclusions from Microsoft Defender on Windows 11?

To remove a file or folder in the exclusion list of Microsoft Defender on Windows 11, do the following:-

Step 1. Firstly, open the Windows Security app.

For that, click the Search button in the taskbar and type “Windows Security.” In the search results, click on its entry to open the same.

Step 2. When Windows Security opens, select Virtus & threat protection in the left sidebar.

Step 3. Then, click the link Manage settings under the “Virus & threat protection settings” section.

Step 4. Next, scroll down on the right sidebar and click the Add or remove exclusions link under the Exclusions header.

Step 5. After that, if the “User Account Control” dialog appears, hit the Yes button.

Step 6. Now, click on an item already added to the exclusion list.

Step 7. Lastly, click on the Remove button to remove a file/folder/process/file type from the exclusion list.

That’s it for the article.

I hope this risewindows post will be informative to you.

Good Luck & Keep learning, guys.