In MS Defender (Beta 2) How do I exclude all files that end with MDB (*.MDB)
from being scanned?

I manage a couple offices that have two apps that run at the same time on
all workstations. There is heavy *.MDB file opening and closing. Users have
complained that the system has gotten very slow ever since I installed the
new Anti-Virus and MS Defender apps. I've excluded the *.MDB files in the
Anti-Virus software and it has helped a lot. They said it is still slow.
Now I want to exclude the *.MDB files in Defender. I assume it will improve
the performance also.

In Defender, when I select a file to exclude using the exclude folders/files
option at the bottom of General Settings, it doesn't allow me to use a file
mask. You can only exclude an entire folder or the file you select. If you
edit the file name it reverts back to the selected file name.

I can't pick the files I want excluded because the application generates the
file names on the fly. I can’t exclude entire folders because it generates
folders names automatically also.

* MS Defender Support: Please add file mask and subdirectory support to the
Defender exclude feature.

Thanks.

Hey Indy,

Defender shouldn't be scanning these files while the user is actively using
the system. It should only do so when a scan is happening, which is
typically scheduled after you're on the computer...

Could you try to identify whether Defender is indeed scanning the MDB file?
A useful tool to do this is FileMon, from http://sysinternals.com/. Set the
filter to *.mdb files and see who opens them. That should tell you two
things: who is opening the files and whether to blame Defender.

Hope this helps,

--
Philip Taron
SDE/T, Antimalware
Microsoft Corporation


"Indy" wrote:

> In MS Defender (Beta 2) How do I exclude all files that end with MDB (*.MDB)
> from being scanned?
>
> I manage a couple offices that have two apps that run at the same time on
> all workstations. There is heavy *.MDB file opening and closing. Users have
> complained that the system has gotten very slow ever since I installed the
> new Anti-Virus and MS Defender apps. I've excluded the *.MDB files in the
> Anti-Virus software and it has helped a lot. They said it is still slow.
> Now I want to exclude the *.MDB files in Defender. I assume it will improve
> the performance also.
>
> In Defender, when I select a file to exclude using the exclude folders/files
> option at the bottom of General Settings, it doesn't allow me to use a file
> mask. You can only exclude an entire folder or the file you select. If you
> edit the file name it reverts back to the selected file name.
>
> I can't pick the files I want excluded because the application generates the
> file names on the fly. I can’t exclude entire folders because it generates
> folders names automatically also.
>
> * MS Defender Support: Please add file mask and subdirectory support to the
> Defender exclude feature.
>
> Thanks.
>