Windows 10: how do i exclude files

i cant find exclusions in settings, is there any other way to add exclusions to files?

:)

 

File History won't exclude folders

I just tried to exclude C:\Users\Donny\Downloads using the legacy control panel File History interface. When I clicked "Select Folder" the folder was added to the excluded folders list. When I clicked "Save changes" and went back into the excluded folders
list, C:\Users\Donny\Downloads was not listed at all.

So certainly not fixed for me.

 

Excluded File Types

I want to exclude .jpg files from custom scans since AFAIK they do not carry malware. It would seem like a simple task, but what is the format of this exclusion list? In the past one usually made a list like: .jpg,.bmp,.gif etc... is it the same for Windows
Defender in Windows 10? Nowhere can I find that simple bit of information. Go to Defender help and it dumps you here to sift through thousands and thousands of posts. What a system.

Can anyone give me the format of the excluded file type list? It seems Defender doesn't care what you put there. You could type in the lord's prayer for all it cares.

 

File History won't exclude folders

The 'remove this drive' technique appeared to work, but when I checked the drive, the folders were still being backed up. Opened the modern file history settings and the folders were still removed from the backup list. I tried to add them manually to the
excluded folders list and they disappeared like before. After a reboot, and I think opening the 'classic' file history control panel without making changes, the removed folders were back on the list and could not be removed.

I also did the same steps above, but manually deleted the backed up folders from the drive after removing them. Still no dice.

Everything is back to where it was before. Somehow I got a folder to stay in the classic and modern control panel exclude lists, but I can't add any more. One thing to note, the exclude list, I think, must contain folders within the backed up folder list.
I know it makes no sense to exclude a folder that isn't backed up anyway (i.e.-not a subfolder of a backed up folder), but it seems a likely place for some weird settings reset bug to occur.

My guess is that there is some interaction between the modern and classic control panels that causes them to reset these lists, compounded by the added functionality of selecting the folders in the modern settings. Something along the lines of the File History
engine checks the classic control panel for exclusions, then checks the modern settings for inclusions, finds a conflict, and reverts to the previous folder lists. Some type of weird tug-o-war over settings, and the underlying triggers are automatically called
from both sides in non-intuitive (to users) ways.

My solution was to ditch FH altogether and switch over to SynBackSE for versioning. Not a solution for everyone, I know, but there is something fundamentally messed up with FH, and I'd rather not gamble with my thesis backups.