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Exclude WSL installations from Windows Defender realtime protection
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| ############ | |
| # This script will add your WSL environments to the Windows Defender exclusion list so that | |
| # realtime protection does not have an adverse effect on performance. | |
| # | |
| # You should be aware that this could make your system less secure. Use at your own risk. | |
| # Note: This should be run from an administrative PowerShell prompt | |
| ############ | |
| # Find registered WSL environments | |
| $wslPaths = (Get-ChildItem HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss | ForEach-Object { Get-ItemProperty $_.PSPath}).BasePath | |
| # Get the current Windows Defender exclusion paths | |
| $currentExclusions = $(Get-MpPreference).ExclusionPath | |
| if (!$currentExclusions) { | |
| $currentExclusions = '' | |
| } | |
| # Find the WSL paths that are not excluded | |
| $exclusionsToAdd = ((Compare-Object $wslPaths $currentExclusions) | Where-Object SideIndicator -eq "<=").InputObject | |
| # List of paths inside the Linux distro to exclude (https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/1932#issuecomment-407855346) | |
| $dirs = @("\bin", "\sbin", "\usr\bin", "\usr\sbin", "\usr\local\bin", "\usr\local\go\bin") | |
| # Add the missing entries to Windows Defender | |
| if ($exclusionsToAdd.Length -gt 0) { | |
| $exclusionsToAdd | ForEach-Object { | |
| # Exclude paths from the root of the WSL install | |
| Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath $_ | |
| Write-Output "Added exclusion for $_" | |
| # Exclude processes contained inside WSL | |
| $rootfs = $_ + "\rootfs" | |
| $dirs | ForEach-Object { | |
| $exclusion = $rootfs + $_ + "\*" | |
| Add-MpPreference -ExclusionProcess $exclusion | |
| Write-Output "Added exclusion for $exclusion" | |
| } | |
| } | |
| } |
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| MIT License | |
| Copyright (c) 2018 Noel Bundick | |
| Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy | |
| of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal | |
| in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights | |
| to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell | |
| copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is | |
| furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: | |
| The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all | |
| copies or substantial portions of the Software. | |
| THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR | |
| IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, | |
| FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE | |
| AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER | |
| LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, | |
| OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE | |
| SOFTWARE. |
I'm hoping that this will help with the VmmemWSL high CPU usage when coming out of sleep. microsoft/WSL#6982 calls it out as "random", but from my experience it is consistently spiking when coming out of sleep (harddrives shutdown) and a WSL terminal or WSLg app is running.
Works fine on Windows 11 and WSL1
Works fine, thx
+ #Requires -RunAsAdministrator
############
# This script will add your WSL environments to the Windows Defender exclusion list so that
# realtime protection does not have an adverse effect on performance.
#
# You should be aware that this could make your system less secure. Use at your own risk.
- # Note: This should be run from an administrative PowerShell prompt
############
To filter out WSL 2 distros one can test Flags, bit 3 means WSL 2 according to https://patrickwu.space/2020/07/19/wsl-related-registry/
I guess WSL 2 does not need this workaround so only WSL 1 distros make sense to exclude (?)
$wslPaths = (Get-ChildItem HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss | ForEach-Object { Get-ItemProperty $_.PSPath} | where {($_).Flags -lt 8}).BasePath
If you have a separate Administrator that runs the script, you can modify it to take your actual WSL user into account:
############
+ $userName = 'John'
+
+ $userSid = (New-Object System.Security.Principal.NTAccount($userName)).Translate([System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier]).Value
# Find registered WSL environments
- $wslPaths = (Get-ChildItem HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss | ForEach-Object { Get-ItemProperty $_.PSPath}).BasePath
+ $wslPaths = (Get-ChildItem Registry::HKEY_USERS\$userSid\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss | ForEach-Object { Get-ItemProperty $_.PSPath}).BasePath
# Get the current Windows Defender exclusion paths
$currentExclusions = $(Get-MpPreference).ExclusionPath
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Working great on WSL2 kali, 11 Pro as of right now.