A dramatic saga is unfolding on X, and VLC and Microsoft Defender are at the center of it. Things kicked off when video game designer Jonathan Blow criticized the open source community due to an issue he had with VLC.
A curious issue causes MP3 files to take a while to open in VLC. In some cases, opening a file can take over 30 seconds.
"Finally switched *away* from VLC *to* Microsoft Media Player, because VLC now takes 33 seconds to start playing an mp3 after clicking on it," said Blow. He added, "A large sector of open source software is in a truly embarrassing place now..."
Blow's post now shows a community note because the bug is due to Microsoft Defender, not VLC. Or at least, that's the claim of several people on X.
VideoLAN, the makers of VLC, responded to Blow:
"This is because of a « bug » from Microsoft Defender in one update of Windows 11, who magically made VLC plugins cache quarantined by Windows. Reinstalling VLC or regeneration of the plugin cache will fix this. Calling open source software embarrassing when it is a Windows update that broke it is quite disrespectful."
In response, Blow claimed that he had to fix an issue that was caused by a faulty graphics driver sent out by AMD. His post suggests that VLC should fix the issue even if the problem is caused by Microsoft Defender.
What's actually happening?
My wife would say that this is all a "storm in a teacup." I don't see the need to be as aggressive about this topic as people have been on X.
Over on Reddit, cooler heads prevailed. A discussion on the topic happened in the r/pcmasterrace subreddit. There, people focused on what's causing the issue and how to fix it.
At least some of the issue is related to Microsoft Defender. That's clear because adding VLC's folder as an exception to Defender fixes the problem, as highlighted by user "nicktheone."
If it were exclusively an issue with VLC, creating the exception within Microsoft Defender would not solve it.
You completely do not understand my tweet and thus would fail at professional software development.BTW I already pay Microsoft for Media Player and it works to an okay degree. I would happily pay someone for something better. VLC was that something better many years ago, but it…August 12, 2026
Of course, you could still debate whose responsibility it is to fix the issue. Even a bug related to Microsoft Defender could potentially be fixed by the VideoLAN team. That's certainly what Blow did while spending much of his Wednesday afternoon arguing with people on X.
How to create an exception for VLC in Microsoft Defender
You shouldn't have to create an exception for VLC in Microsoft Defender to open an MP3 in less than 30 seconds, but... here we are. Luckily, the steps to do so are simple:
- Open Windows Security
- Select Virus & threat protection
- Select Manage settings
- Select Add or remove exclusions (it's at the bottom of the page)
- Click Add an exclusion
- Select Folder
- Navigate to C:\Program Files\VideoLAN
- Click Select Folder
Before making an exclusion, VLC took about five seconds to open an MP3 on my computer. After creating an exclusion, opening the same file took under one second.
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