3.8 Scan Exclusions Policy

This section provides information about the settings you can view and modify in the Details page of a selected Antimalware Scan Exclusions Policy. If you want to update settings on devices that already have the selected policy assigned, you need to republish the policy after making modifications, and then execute a refresh on those devices.

To open the Details page of the policy in ZENworks Control Center, navigate to Policies, select the policy in the Policies page or folder, click the policy name link, and select the Details tab.

The Custom Exclusions configuration in the Antimalware Scan Exclusions Policy gives you the most comprehensive options for applying custom exclusions in the Antimalware Agent. You can tailor each exclusion that you add by one of the exclusion types (File, Folder, Extension, or Process), and by one or more scan types (On-Access, Full, Quick, External Device, Contextual, Network, and Custom).

When you assign both the Antimalware Scan Exclusions Policy and one or more of the Antimalware scan policies to a device with the Use Antimalware Exclusions policies assigned to device option selected under Custom Exclusions in the scan policy, the settings in the Antimalware Scan Exclusions Policy will be enforced.

To configure Custom Exclusions, click New and save the configuration items in the New Exclusion dialog box for each exclusion that you add. The criteria required for the Exclusion field for each exclusion type is provided below:

NOTE:The Process exclusion type can only be used for the On-Access and Full scan types.

  • File, Folder, and Process:

    • Enter a path. For example:

      - Explicit: Used for exclusions in the on-demand scan types, Full, Quick, External Device, and Contextual, which are only applicable to local drives (fixed and removable), not on network mapped drives.

      • Folder: C:\temp

      • File: E:\temp\Myfile.txt

      - UNC path: Used for exclusions in the On-Access and Network scan types only. These path types are ignored if used for on-demand scans. To ensure the path works in all environments, it is recommended that you enter the path using both formats.

      • \\hostName\shareName\filePath

      • \\IPaddress\shareName\filePath

      NOTE:An exclusion path for an On-Access Scan can include any file path the end user has rights to access.

    • Enter an environment variable. For example: %ProgramFiles%

    • Enter a wildcard. Use an asterisk (*) or double asterisk (**) to substitute for zero or more characters. Use a question mark (?) to substitute for exactly one character. Use several question marks to define any combination of a specific number of characters. For example, ??? substitutes for any combination of exactly three characters. See the examples below. For example:

      • File exclusion in a location: C:\Test\* or C:\Test\*.png

        (excludes all files from the Test folder)

      • File exclusion in any location: **\example.txt

        (excludes any file named example.txt regardless of its location on the device)

      • Folder exclusion: C:\Test\*

        (excludes all folders from the Test folder)

      • Process exclusion:

        C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.Not??.exe

        (excludes the Microsoft Notes processes)

    NOTE:Process type exclusions require the name of the executable file, which can also include file names with wildcard characters.

  • Extension: Enter one or more file extensions to be excluded from scanning, separated by a semicolon “;”. You can enter extensions with or without the preceding dot. For example:

    txt or .txt