Windows Defender: Exclude all build artifacts created by all installed nightlies on Win 8.1

help
1

I have different nightlies installed for different projects (pinned with a rust-toolchain file).

How can I exclude ALL nightlies from causing Windows Defender to scan the files they create (on Win 8.1)?
I.E. all exe files under D:\Program Files\.multirust\toolchains.
It seems I can only add individual .exe files under "Excluded processes" and I can only enter directories for "Excluded files and locations" but when I add D:\Program Files\.multirust\toolchains to that category, it will only not scan the contents of that dir, but still the files created by exes in that dir!

I found this answer:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/5gf38v/when_excluding_a_process_in_windows_defender_do_i/day7lz6/

But it doesn't seem to work on Win 8.1:

image

Do you have an idea how to exclude all installed nightlies from Windows Defender (the files they create) on Win 8.1?

2

No, you can't.

Defender doesn't know if a file were created by program X or Y. It only knows its an exe and will scan it.

What you could do though is to exclude the folder were you usually put your projects to.

3

But according to that reddit answer it works in Win 10, with a wildcard like D:\Program Files\.multirust\toolchains\* but in Win 8.1 it doesn't let me use wildcards.
But there is no technical reason why it can't support it, maybe the way to do it on Win 8.1 is just different?

4

This is still only ignoring the compilers, not the programs you create using them.

And if the windows 8 defender doesn't support things that are supported in the 10 version, you need to upgrade or ask it's publisher to port the missing features to the version you use. Perhaps they simply missed it?