In this article, I’ll show you how I exclude a folder from being scanned by Windows Defender Antivirus on Windows Nano Server 2016.
With the release of Windows Server 2016, Microsoft has made Windows Defender available for free on all Windows Server 2016 editions Including Nano.
By default, Defender Is not Installed on Windows Nano Server 2016, If you need to Install please use the following article Install Windows Defender AntiVirus On Windows Nano Server 2016
To get started, Log In to Nano Server using remote PowerShell or PowerShell Direct.
In my case, I’ll exclude my Virtual Machines folder located in C:\VMs and I’ll use the cmdlet set-mpPreference:
get-help Set-MpPreference
To exclude C:\VMs I’ll use the cmdlets below:
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath C:\VMs\ -Verbose
To confirm and review I’ll use
Get-MpPreference
To remove exclusion use
Remove-MpPreference -ExclusionPath C:\VMs\