Microsoft Defender is causing slow VLC startups. Here's the fix

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Microsoft Defender is causing slow VLC startups. Here's what you can do to fix it For some time now, there have been complaints across various online forums about how the popular VLC Media Player takes several seconds (sometimes half a minute!) to start up. The problem occurs regardless of size or the type of media file you wish to play. There's also some unfounded accusations against the VideoLan developers; one often reads claims that Microsoft is deliberately slowing down the open-source media player.