File types and locations (if any) to exclude from AntiVirus scanning?

Question

Should I add any file types to my anti-virus's file type exclusion list? If so, which types?

Should I add any locations (specifically for Windows 7) to an exclusion list? If so, which locations?

Google found me a few references like http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822158 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943556 and some site purporting to conduct expert sex changes but haven't found anything particularly confidence-inspiring.

Answer 1

It depends on what you're doing, We were using an industry standard Truss design program that was hit paticularly hard by realtime scanning as all files were stored on the server and dragged over to the user PC, there were a 'Lot' of files coming over and the real time scanning slowed performance to a crawl. With a little tweaking of the location and program exception list we removed the slowdown and kept our paymasters happy without really comprimising security.
If you are noticing no slowdown then why would you want to add exclusions? I notice by your name that you are in the CAD field, is this program being hit by the AV? If so it is best to speak to the programs manufacturers and explain the problem and see what files / folders / processes need adding to the exception list.