Slow VST scans on startup...

[John Bradley]

...thanks to the over-aggressive Real Time Protection offered by Windows Defender (MsMpEng.exe).

Some people suggest adding exclusions for all your VST folders, but that seems dangerous to me, given that VSTs are the only executable code I routinely download and run on my rig, and "check out this great new free VST from some guy" seems like a pretty good attack vector.

Note that adding folder exclusions excludes the files from being scanned ever, even in scheduled/manual Quick or Full Scans.

Instead, in Windows Security's Virus & Threat Protection settings | Exclusions add a pair of Process Exclusions for 
C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Utilities\VstScan.exe
C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core\Cakewalk.exe

The latter is probably unnecessary, but what the heck.

Anyway, Cakewalk startup happens much more quickly (over 1000 VSTs scanned/installed on this system), and any Defender system scans will still check all the VSTs for naughtiness.

 

[Max Arwood]

Also just  turn off vst scans on cakewalk startup. You don’t need to do that. You  only need to scan after adding plugins or if you are having problems with plugins. 

[John Bradley]

Note, if you have Native Instruments KOMPLETE, I'd also recommend adding process exclusions for 
Komplete Kontrol.exe
ScanPluginsApp_x64.exe

So that Komplete Kontrol doesn't take forever to launch. It'll still scan all your VSTs on startup - doesn't seem to be any way to prevent that - but not running a virus scan on each one every time speeds up the process dramatically.