PHDM 16,, EXCLUDE files/folders from VOLUME backup, anyone willing to experiment?

[aoz987]

to all,
there is a separate thread on the MISSING OPTION for the EXCLUDE files/folders from VOLUME backups. I will leave that thread as the one for followups on wheter it gets inserted, etc.
but I'm wondering if anyone is willing to experiment, on this thread, for hardcoding the EXCLUDES, in the SETTINGS files.
There are TWO settings files that I see, in the PROGRAM folder
C:\Program Files\Paragon Software\Hard Disk Manager 16 Basic\program
Settings.XML
Settings.DEF
in both of these, there are EXCLUDE parameters, for wildcard files (such as
[]]></Description></ExcludeItem><ExcludeItem><Mask><![CDATA[*.pst]]></Mask><Description><![CDATA

AND, in the XML file, there is an ExcludeGroup parameter that gets set up, (I did this in PHDM 15 through their menu, and i saw where it set the parameter in the XML file), for exclusion of a folder.
IF i am able to add an EXCLUDE line, for .VHD files, this would help remove my 40 gig VIRTUAL drive (which resides on the c: drive, but gets mounted as D:, ), and this could shrink my IMAGE size.

If anyone is willing to help test some modifications of this (yes, I realize there can be smoke, fire, explosions, etc, on main machine), or has experimented with this, I'd be interested to know how it went.
I may try this on my spare machine, and see what happens.
My concern, if testing this, is how to verify the integrity of the backup that gets created.

anyway, thought I'd post this experiment
thanks
nick

[aoz987]

see new thread
PHDM 16 advanced, and EXCLUDE option - NOW PRESENT ! (2018-01-16)