How to Exclude Files and Folders from Defender in Windows 11 – Guide

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Delete Defender Files and Folders in Windows 11 and Windows 10

The process to delete Defender files and folders is not very complicated. But you need to make some changes to your Windows security settings, explained below. So, just follow these steps.

Open Windows Security (Microsoft Defender)

First of all, search for Windows security under Start in Windows 11 or Windows 10 and select Windows Security from the search results.

Open ‘Virus and threat protection settings’

Now select the ‘Virus & Threat Protection’ tab from the left. After that, scroll down and click on the ‘Manage Settings’ link under Virus and threat protection settings.

Go to Windows Security Exclusion Settings (Microsoft Defender)

Now, under Manage Settings, scroll down to the bottom of the page. Here, click on the ‘Add or remove exclusions’ link in the Exclusions section. You can use this setting to exclude Defender files and folders on your Windows 11 or Windows 10 computer.

Select Exclusion Type for Windows Security (Microsoft Defender)

Now, click on “+ Add an exclusion” button and select the type of deletion you want to do. You can make 4 types of exclusions which are explained in the table below. Then, scroll through the list and select the desired deletion. In this tutorial we are adding a folder exclusion in Defender.

Select files or folders to exclude from Defender

As we selected the folder type exclusion, a browse window will open. Now, go ahead and select the folder you want to exclude from Defender. After that, the selected file or folder will be displayed up under the Exclusions. This is How to delete Defender files and folders in Windows 11 and 10. Next time Defender scans your system, this folder will be deleted.

Remove Windows Security Exclusion (Microsoft Defender)

You have now successfully deleted the selected Microsoft Defender/Windows Security folder. However, if you decide to remove it from the exclusions, you can easily do that too. Just click on the exclusion to select it and then click on Remove button to remove this Defender exclusion.

Final note

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