Add Wasabi to Windows Defender exclusions

[soosr]

After the installations of Rider, it pops a Post-Installations Steps window which has a option for adding Rider to Windows defender exclusions as it will improve startup time.

After asking chatGPT it has several advantages of doing it:

• Normally, when an application starts, Windows Defender scans its files to ensure there's no malicious software. This is particularly intensive if the application, like Rider, consists of numerous files and possibly generates additional files dynamically. By adding Rider to the exclusions list, these files aren't scanned, thus reducing the time taken for these security checks.
• Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like Rider frequently read and write a lot of files and may also compile code in real-time. Antivirus scanning can slow down these operations because each file access could trigger a scan. Excluding such applications from antivirus checks can significantly speed up these file operations.
• Development environments can sometimes be flagged by antivirus software as suspicious due to the behaviors they exhibit (like network connections, frequent file system operations, etc.). Excluding them can prevent unnecessary interruptions from false alarms.

Would it be worth for us doing the same?

[remcoros]

I don't think this is a good idea.

As far as I know, Defender exclusions work based on folder paths and executable names, not on file content signatures.

So what will happen, when a user blindly accepts adding the exclusions (More performance, yes please), it adds exclusions for 'program files/Wasabi' / wasabee.exe / etc.

Then he opened himself up to be infected by ANY malicious software calling itself "wasabee.exe" or injecting it into wasabi's program files / data folder / etc.

There's already "fake" wasabi releases out there. And with exclusions in Defender like this, they have zero chance of being detected anymore.

The "Rider" use-case is a bit different, it's targeted at developers, who, most likely, have a very good understanding of what they are doing and what they install on their machine.

I also doubt this will bring noticeable performance improvements. Rider/MSBuild/csc.exe are special in that regard, as they do A LOT of disk access/caching/compiling/etc.

I'm afraid normal users will just blindly accept the exclusions, and that leaves them vulnerable.