VS Code Go to Symbol in Workspace - exclude external files

Question

Using VSCode is there a way to configure the Go to Symbol in Workspace tool (default ctrl+T) to exclude external directories?

In my Angular workspace, VS Code is currently listing symbols in node_modules, program files and other directories I am not interested in searching.

Researching around the internet I various posts recommended trying the following settings, but setting these did not impact Go to Symbols.

.vscode\settings.json

    "files.exclude": {
        "**/node_modules": true,
        "**/obj": true,
        "*.d.ts": true
    },
    "search.exclude": {
        "**/node_modules": true,
        "**/dist": true,
        "*.d.ts": true
    },

\jsconfig.json

   "compilerOptions": {
        "target": "ES6",
        "lib": []
    },
    "exclude": [
        "node_modules",
        "**/node_modules/*"
    ]

Answer 1

Try this:

1. Go to: File > Preferences > Settings
2. Type in the search field: exclude
3. Add the following under "Files: Exclude": **/node_modules
4. And add the following under "Files: Watcher Exclude": **/node_modules/*/**

I hope this is what you are looking for (which works for me)