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Windows => JRiver Media Center 34 for Windows => Topic started by: zybex on March 16, 2025, 01:14:04 pm

Title: INFO: Antivirus configuration, different types of Exclusions
Post by: zybex on March 16, 2025, 01:14:04 pm

Antivirus problems with MC are common. Antivirus nowadays are more often than not 'guessing' based on application behavior than actually detecting known virus. Because MC is a complex software that accesses many files and network resources, it tends to trigger close automated scrutiny from the Antivirus, often causing slowdowns or breaking features due to the AV blocking access to some file or resource.

The common solution is to tell the AV to exclude MC from scanning. There are however different ways to do this - this post explains the differences.

CAVEAT: only do this is you really trust JRiver not to drop a BTC miner or Trojan on your machine ;D

The best way to avoid AV problems is to exclude the MC processes, not just the folder or EXE files. In Defender and other AVs you can add Folder/File/Extension/Process exclusions; these have different effects:

Exclusion type	Description
Folder	Files within the folder will not be scanned when executed or accessed
File	This single file will not be scanned when executed or accessed
Extension	Files with this extension will not be scanned when accessed by any application
Process	Any files opened/accessed/updated by this process will not be scanned, regardless of location

If you add simply exclude the C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center folder, the Antivirus will still intercept and monitor ALL files opened/created/updated by MC, and ALL network connections it does. It just won't scan the MC application files themselves.

The same applies if you simply exclude the Media Center 34.exe/JRService.exe/JRWeb.exe/JRWorker.exe files - the EXE files themselves will not be scanned, but everything they do will still be monitored and potentially interfered with.

Excluding the Processes of Media Center 34/JRService/JRWeb/JRWorker will actually tell the AV to ignore ALL activity performed by these applications. This ensures it won't interfere with media file accesses and network operations. Make sure to add exclusions for each of these processes as all of them perform different MC tasks.

Note that a Process exclusion in Defender doesn't exclude the actual EXE file, just its behavior - so you should still also exclude the MC Folder so that opening MC doesn't trigger a potentially fake detection on the EXE itself.

Title: Re: INFO: Antivirus configuration, different types of Exclusions
Post by: tzr916 on March 16, 2025, 04:02:08 pm

Screenshot of settings that have worked for me. On the Server machine, I also add every folder that has actual media files [audio/video/photos/etc].

Title: Re: INFO: Antivirus configuration, different types of Exclusions
Post by: terrym@tassie on March 16, 2025, 07:29:02 pm

For those who have multiple versions of MC installed or just want to do the exclusion setup once in Windows Security (and who like me always forget to do it again when I upgrade), then these Windows Security settings should be useful (and quick and easy). They add process and folder/file exclusions for any version of Media Center.

64-bit Media Center
For folders: C:\Program Files\J River   AND    C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Roaming\J River   (using the 'Select folder' browser)
For processes: %PROGRAMFILES%\J River\*     (input the text shown directly into the 'Enter process name' text box)

32-bit Media Center
For folders: C:\Program Files (x86)\J River   AND    C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Roaming\J River
For processes: %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\J River\*

The above settings make use of the process wildcard and sub-folder/file recursive features of Windows Security exclusion settings.
See https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/virus-and-threat-protection-in-the-windows-security-app-1362f4cd-d71a-b52a-0b66-c2820032b65e (https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/virus-and-threat-protection-in-the-windows-security-app-1362f4cd-d71a-b52a-0b66-c2820032b65e) for the Microsoft docs explaining the rationale for the above settings.

It is worth noting that the exclusions ONLY apply to real-time scanning with Microsoft Defender Antivirus. Any scheduled scans might still scan these folders/files or processes.

Title: Re: INFO: Antivirus configuration, different types of Exclusions
Post by: dtc on March 17, 2025, 05:29:01 pm

Quote from: terrym@tassie on March 16, 2025, 07:29:02 pm

64-bit Media Center
For folders: C:\Program Files\J River   AND    C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Roaming\J River   (using the 'Select folder' browser)
For processes: %PROGRAMFILES%\J River\*     (input the text shown directly into the 'Enter process name' text box)

The above settings make use of the process wildcard and sub-folder/file recursive features of Windows Security exclusion settings.

The above are the exclusions I use - 2 folder exclusions and 1 process exclusion. They should, as far as I can tell, provide exclusions for everything that is needed and apply to all installed version of MC. Excluding media directories and media types seems unnecessary.

The two folder exclusions exclude scanning of any files including executable in those folders. This applies to all installed versions of Media Center and does not need to be changed for new versions.

The second one excludes files opened by any processes run from the JRiver folder, including MediaCenter xx.exe and MC xx.exe plus other executables in that folder such as JRservice, JRWeb, JRWorker. This exclusion applies to any version of Media Center so does not have to be changed for new versions.

I believe these 3 exclusions cover everything that is needed and, as Terry points out,  have the advantage of covering all versions.

Unless I missed something, it seems like these 3 exclusions should become the standard.

Using a folder name with a process exclusion is not commonly used, but is explained in

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/defender-endpoint/configure-process-opened-file-exclusions-microsoft-defender-antivirus

The text from that article includes the following example of a process exclusion for a folder

"Any file on the machine that is opened by any process under a specific folder   

Specifying c:\test\sample\* would exclude files opened by:

c:\test\sample\test.exe

c:\test\sample\test2.exe

c:\test\sample\utility.exe"

Title: Re: INFO: Antivirus configuration, different types of Exclusions
Post by: grewterd on March 18, 2025, 08:39:39 pm

We use Crowdstrike where I work. Even the CS admin describes it as a virus the way it behaves.

Title: Re: INFO: Antivirus configuration, different types of Exclusions
Post by: sygnus21 on March 31, 2025, 11:26:23 am

I've been using JRiver Media Center since MC26 on Windows and NEVER had an AV issue with it any version of JRiver Media Center. This of course with using Windows built in AV now called Windows Security.

Currently running Windows 11 Pro 24H2 with JRiver Media Center 33. Not a single issue. Maybe some other third-party AV's are causing issues, but Windows Security isn't one of them (at least from my years of experience).