What does a checkmark mean when adding exceptions?

ShineBolt

On this screen:

What does the on switch for the antivirus mean? Is that a yes, antivirus will be active for this folder and all of its subfolders? Or yes antivirus protection will be excluded from this folder and all of its subfolders?

What do the checkmarks mean? Does a checked On-access scan mean that yes, antivirus will check the content of the folder on access? Or yes, this folder will be excluded from On-access antivirus scans?

Why is the Antivirus defaulted to being on when the exception is created, while Online Threat Prevention and Advanced Threat Defense are turned off?

Gjoksi

Hello.

It means that antivirus protection will be excluded from this folder and all of its subfolders, so the Antivirus feature will not scan the folder.

It also means that the folder will be excluded from On-access, On-demand and Embedded scripts antivirus scans.

Online Threat Prevention ensures a safe browsing experience by alerting you about potential malicious webpages, so Online Threat Prevention scans only webpages, not folders/files on your PC.

Advanced Threat Defense is an innovative proactive detection technology which uses advanced heuristic methods to detect ransomware and other new potential threats in real time. Advanced Threat Defense continuously monitors the apps running on the device, looking for threat-like actions.

Only .EXE file types can be added to the exception list. The extension .exe stands for "executable", the file that opens an app. Other file types or folders cannot be excluded as Advanced Threat Defense only monitors running .EXE processes.

That is the reason why Online Threat Prevention and Advanced Threat Defense are switched off.

Regards.