# Windows thinks PLAY is malware?



## purple (Jul 2, 2020)

I've had slow load times in EastWest PLAY despite having an SSD. I just assumed the player was naturally slower than kontakt for whatever reason, but today I had my task manager open and noticed loading a library in PLAY caused a spike in CPU usage for the infamous "antimalware service executable", which suggests to me this is windows' fault. Is there some way I can have PLAY bypass this antimalware service to improve my load times? I seem to remember something like this being mentioned somewhere but I can't find anything.


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## JohnG (Jul 2, 2020)

you need to exclude PLAY from Windows Defender.

Here's one site that explains it. There are others: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028485/windows-10-add-an-exclusion-to-windows-security

I exclude all sample drives from Defender -- it can make an enormous difference, not just with PLAY.


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## VladK (Jul 2, 2020)

Yep, just exclude all folders where sample libraries (EW and any other) are installed, from Windows Defender scans.


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## purple (Jul 2, 2020)

So it might also help KONTAKT performance as well? Good to know, since I'm mostly phasing the composer cloud out of my templates over time anyways. Thanks.


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## Rasoul Morteza (Jul 2, 2020)

purple said:


> So it might also help KONTAKT performance as well? Good to know, since I'm mostly phasing the composer cloud out of my templates over time anyways. Thanks.


Any sort of scan or I/O activity puts unnecessary load on your system so yes it may help, if I were you I would exclude the entirety of my audio softwares and samples. It's what I do anyways.
I'm still on a dinosaur computer but you might also, if possible, disable WD on your Win10 machine but keep on your firewall and do routine scans with free scanners provided by the majority of AV developers. I may be very wrong, but after so many years of trying all sorts of security packages I just feel that for most of us, real-time protection is overrated and unnecessary (unless you really think you won a million dollars).

Cheers


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## Jay Panikkar (Jul 2, 2020)

Windows Defender greatly slows down loading in PLAY, Kontakt and other samplers. Especially with big sample libraries, there are a large number of files queued up for loading at the same time which trips Defender.

Excluding the folder is not enough, for some reason. You need to exclude the file types as well: ewi, ews and some others I don't remember.


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