How to retrieve Windows Defender exclusions by PowerShell without truncation output

Question

I want to write a PowerShell Script that displays all exclusions set in Windows Defender in Windows 10. So I already found out that this can be done by calling

Get-MpPreference | Select-Object -Property ExclusionPath

Which truncates the output if there are a lot of files and folders defined.

So I tried to add

Get-MpPreference | Select-Object -Property ExclusionPath | Out-String -width 1024

Which leads to a similar output: the string gets longer, but the truncation persists, only some whitespace is added to the end:

ExclusionPath                                                                                                                                                   
-------------                                                                                                                                                   
{C:\Users\Elvi\Documents\Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag, C:\Users\Elvi\Documents\Benutzerdefinierte Office-Vorlagen, C:\Users\Elvi\Documents\FHOA, C:\Users\Elvi\Documents\Gebuhrenzentrale...}



PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

So how can I prevent Powershell from truncating the output of the folders?

Solution 1

Get-MpPreference | Select-Object -ExpandProperty ExclusionPath

-ExpandProperty unravels the collection of ExclusionPath into separate lines, with each exclusion path on a new line.

Out-String -Width or Format-Table -Width doesn't help enough in case the number of items is too high, Powershell just doesn't display more than the value of $FormatEnumerationLimit items. So you could also set that to a higher value

$FormatEnumerationLimit=12

But then, what happens if there are more than 12 items (you could raise the number to 1500... output is still ugly)

Solution 2

This worked for me, listing all entries expanded:

 Get-MpPreference | Select-Object -Property ExclusionPath -ExpandProperty ExclusionPath

Solution 3

Pipe the output with the Format-Table commandlet, e.g.

Get-MpPreference | Select-Object -Property ExclusionPath | Format-Table -AutoSize

Comments

[Lieven Keersmaekers]

Expand the property - Get-MpPreference | Select-Object -expand ExclusionPath

[SimonS]

To improve the answer, you should explain what -ExpandProperty exactly does, and also you should remove the part where you critizise richie's answer and make it a comment on his answer - if you really feel that it's constructive

[postanote]

Or simply dot reference it. [(Get-MpPreference).ExclusionPath] If all you want is one property. Otherwise, the Select-Object approach as noted is more prudent.

[AndrePKI]

@SimonS, I can't comment on other's posts as I don't have enough Reputation for that (yet)