Arduino 1.6.x compiling slowly ... and I mean S-L-O-W-L-Y

This has been really bugging me... the simplest of sketches taking upwards of 2 minutes to compile, seriously adding to the amount of coffee consumed, and the level of frustration in the workshop.

Googling provided a couple of pointers, non of which improved matters. 

The current Linux IDE doesn't have some of the nice features I like in the windows IDE, so that wasn't an option. I don't do Apple.

After much buggering around , it turns out my anti-virus is the cause of the delays.

I use Avast! Anti-virus, because it's free.

Here's how to fix it. 

Open the Avast! user interface, and click on the settings button (looks like a cog).

Click on Active protection.

Now click on Customise by File System Sheild.

Click on Exclusions and Add.

and add in , or browse to the Arduino directory, in my case C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\*

now Click OK, and enjoy the rapid compiling we were once used to. 

Coffee anyone?