Since a while I noticed that when I double clicked an MP4 file, VLC took really long (like several seconds) to open and show the file. Actually really annoingly long. But as I don’t watch a lot of movies, I never really bothered debugging it.
BUT recently I came across on itsfoss.com and a tweet on X from VideoLan themselfes that explained the problem and solution:
The Problem:
This is because of a « bug » from Microsoft Defender in one update of Windows 11, who magically made VLC plugins cache quarantined by Windows.
VLC Team on X
Reinstalling VLC or regeneration of the plugin cache will fix this.
The solution(s)
Clearing the cache by one of the following steps:
- Regenerate the plugin cache: launch with
vlc.exe --reset-plugins-cache - Clear VLC’s cache under the user profile at
%APPDATA%/VLC - Reinstall VLC from the official build (download here)
But this won’t prevent Defender to possibly kick in again.
Therefore, excluding vlc.exe in Microsoft Defender should be a sustainable solution!
The exact clickpath might change. But it should be under (german):
Einstellungen > Viren und Bedrohungsschutz > Einstellungen für Viren & Bedrohungsschutz - Einstellungen verwalten > (ganz unten) Ausschlüße hinzufügen oder entfernen
