Make a whole subtree in disk not scanned

[PatrickV]

Hi There,

I'm a developer using Visual Studio and have Avast installed.
I Really like Avast for what it is doing, but sometimes it get's in the way of my development work.
On slower machines, Avast is using precious cycles scanning my source-code and the generated DLL's and Executable
On all machines the Sandbox becomes annoying because every time I start a newly created version of my program the Sandbox ask's if the file is trustworthy.

So I end up stopping the Sandbox (or switching of files with a low reputation), but that kind of defeats it's purpose. I expect a new virus to not have a high reputation.
I know I can exclude certain files from the Sandbox, but the problem is that my project creates hundreds of new Executables and DLL's. It' kind of a lot of work to exclude them one by one...

Now my question is this: would it be possible to exclude a while directory and all it's subdirectories from being scanned by Avast.
That way I could just make a part of my disk unchecked, but since the name of the dev-folder is not something like c:\Program Files that is probably not a very big problem.

Hope you can provide me with a positive answer on how to do this!

TIA & Regards,

Patrick

[DavidR]

Whilst it isn't a thing that can be done in the AutoSandbox exclusions as it won't allow you to select a folder, only files. That said, it allows wildcards, so you could try this (no guarantee that it would work):

Select one of the files that you want excluded, that will give the full path to the file name and change the <path>\filename.filetype to <path>\*.filetype and see if that is a work around. This however won't exclude sub-folders only for files with that file type in that folder, you could create one for each sub-folder\.

Care has to be taken when using wildcards as it can leave holes in security.

Of course I guess that most of your development files will fall under the file prevalence/reputation is low, so you have the option in the autosandbox setting to uncheck that option, that however would be for everything, not just your development files.

[igor]

Select one of the files that you want excluded, that will give the full path to the file name and change the <path>\filename.filetype to <path>\*.filetype and see if that is a work around. This however won't exclude sub-folders only for files with that file type in that folder, you could create one for each sub-folder.

Why wouldn't it exclude subfolders? It does - the asterisk stands for anything, no matter if "file_name_without_extension" or "folder_name\file_name_without_extension" or "folder_name\subfolder_name\file_name_without_extension".

[DavidR]

Just looking at the fact you can't select a folder under normal circumstances in the autosandbox exclusions.

Whilst the wildcard can be used, I simply don't know if would work in the autosandbox, I was even guessing if the example I gave would work. Otherwise why wouldn't it let you select a folder as per the other shields, when you subsequently have to manually add a file to replace the * in the exclusions if you only want a file excluded not the folder.

In a way I'm glad you brought this up as there really needs to be some consistency in the exclusions and either be able to drill down to file level or stop at a folder. But there are differences across the various exclusions, be that on-access shield or on-demand exclusion.

[igor]

Well, I was talking about the wildcards in general (and I know they work for filesystem shield exclusions this way).
Whether wildcards are supported for (auto)sandbox, I admit I don't know.